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Why is every podcast sponsored by a VPN company?

girdley.substack.com

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Re: Why is every podcast sponsored by a VPN company?

#3

Post by jbigelow76 »

I read the article twice just to make sure I didn't miss it but I believe the article isn't the headline "Why is every podcast sponsored by a VPN company?" which then goes on to explain why podcasts are (might be?) a good advertising channel. The article is literally the headline, a summary of the VPN biz and... that's it. Nothing specific about podcast sponsoring or how that channel differs from any others. lol

Re: Why is every podcast sponsored by a VPN company?

#4

Post by rchowe »

... and a lot of those VPN companies are probably VC-funded.

Tom Scott made a good video on the uses and non-uses of VPNs [1]. VPN advertising has changed since that video to downplay "security", but what I think is odd is that they've replaced that with advertisement that basically is "violate the terms of service of Netflix".

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVDQEoe6ZWY

Re: Why is every podcast sponsored by a VPN company?

#7

Post by missedthecue »

VPNs are very high margin products (50% of revenue is cashflow, the author points out). But they suffer from higher churn rates than most SaaS businesses. Switching costs are essentially free, it's hard to differentiate your product from someone else's in a meaningful way, discounts and promos abound, and achieving any kind of lock-in is next to impossible.

Therefore, they advertise a lot. We here on HN probably get a lot of sampling bias because we are more likely to listen to tech related podcasts. If we listened to fashion podcasts, we'd hear different ads.

VPNs also have a unique problem where the people that really need their product don't have the facilities to subscribe to one. To illustrate this, most of the countries in Africa censor the web to varying degrees, but the credit card penetration rate on the continent is only at 4% right now. So VPNs have to advertise to the people who don't need VPNs, but can afford them. And that's why you hear them talking about how everyone at Starbucks is snooping on your web traffic as if https isn't 30 year old technology or hyping up their "military grade" encryption (i.e. AES-256 run of the mill stuff).

Source: I work for a VPN company.

Re: Why is every podcast sponsored by a VPN company?

#8

Post by zwkrt »

missedthecue wrote: post #7

VPNs are very high margin products (50% of revenue is cashflow, the author points out). But they suffer from higher churn rates than most SaaS businesses. Switching costs are essentially free, it's hard to differentiate your product from someone else's in a meaningful way, discounts and promos abound, and achieving any kind of lock-in is next to impossible. Therefore, they advertise a lot. We here on HN probably get…

I particularly like the spin that the Youtube channel We're in Hell uses to advertise their VPN. Example: https://youtu.be/H_JQAx5uXB0?t=308

"You're still not sure if you are as cheap or as evil as you could be. That's where SurfShark comes in!"

Re: Why is every podcast sponsored by a VPN company?

#10

Post by naet »

There are a couple companies or industries that seem to dominate large sections of the digital ad market for videos, podcasts, live streams, social media, or other content creator focused markets.* They aren't all VPNs, but VPN is one of the main categories for sure.

Not sure why these companies have a larger advertisement budget or why they are choosing those platforms over other more traditional ad opportunities.

Some examples: Audio books / podcasts (Audible), shaving supplies (dollar shave club), sports betting (Draft Kings), crypto and crypto betting (Stake), VPNs (Nord), online classes / tutorials (Skillshare), etc.

*At least based on my own anecdotal online media consumption.

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