Toronto-based TunnelBear, which provides super-simple VPN services for Windows, OS X, iOS and, most recently, Android, has reached a user base of one million.
The accomplishment happened in just over two years as Internet users became more cognizant of their privacy and seemingly-constant exposure through browsing, social networks and shopping.
TunnelBear manages this anonymity by routing traffic through one of many servers located throughout the world, though the majority it sent through the United States and the United Kingdom.
The service is free for a certain number of megabytes per month, which can be augmented by tweeting support for the app, a referral program that has found great success throughout the industry.
The company’s user base has doubled in the past year, according to co-founder Ryan Dochuk, claiming his users are on an Internet that is “a little less creepy than before.”
Mobile adoption has also been swift, as 35% of the one million “bears” use the service on both the desktop and a smartphone or tablet.
TunnelBear differentiates its service with easy controls and a plain pricing structure: $4.99 per month or $49.99 per year for unlimited bandwidth.
While the main advertised use is for traffic anonymity, a popular “side effect” of using a VPN located in another country is the temporary acquisition of a foreign IP address, the market many services use to determine eligibility. For example, Canadians can use TunnelBear to access the U.S. Netflix catalogue, or play music through the popular Pandora portal.
