July 2011 – You'll notice a lot of links that aren't working here on the site. It seems that in recent weeks, The Great Firewall has had some serious updates, and many of the VPNs featured/reviewed are blocked (at least the sites are). This may not be for the entire country, but at least here in Fujian, many have been blocked.
Securitales is a Web Based Service that is not blocked. A web based service is different from a VPN, but can also unblock sites in China. The advantage of a Web based service over a VPN is that you don't have to download anything onto your computer. It works on iPhone, iPad and other smart phones as well as laptop and desktop operating systems like Mac, Windows, and Linux.
The most important thing right now is that it's NOT BLOCKED.
Check out Securitales at www.securitales.com.
According to a survery I conducted last month, with my cool new analytic software, over seventy percent of people who sign up for a vpn though this site are using Mac's. Now I don't know if that has something to do with the kind of expat culture that's going on in China, or if it has to do with Mac culture and how people purchase. Maybe a combination of the two. Also, it's possible that many of the Mac users who sign up are doing so for their iPhone, which has become extremely popular in China. It this case, not just expats, but Chinese as well would be included. Unfortunately I'm unable to track the nationality of the person making the purchase.
The other bit of interesting information is that of the people that are buying vpn's for their Mac OS X or iPhone, 52% are using 12vpn.
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Again, there are a number of possible factors here. For one, the 12vpn site is designed very simply. I think that customers with basic English levels would definetly choose 12vpn over something like Strongvpn, because their site makes purchasing and installing simple. There is little reading involved. Perhaps similar, but less English related is the simple design of their site. It's very clean, very streamlined, with little to distract you. Although things like L2TP vs SSL are important, the 12vpn site doens't throw them in your face. I remember the first time I saw the drop-down menu for Strongvpn. 晕！There is also less complication about choosing server location and limitations of switching.
Anyway, just my thoughts on a bit of data about Mac vpn usres in China.
You can check out the 12vpn site HERE