As popular as Slack has become worldwide, you still can’t access it in China despite being hugely beneficial to small-and-medium businesses like the ones that are springing up all over the world’s largest country.
A Brief History of Slack
Slack was launched in August 2013 and founded by Stewart Butterfield, the entrepreneur who had previously launched Flickr. The word Slack is actually an acronym for the phrase “Searchable Log of All Conversation and Knowledge”. Slack overcame an early-stage hack in 2015 and began growing by leaps and bounds after that. It allows users to be grouped into Teams and integrates extremely well with a number of like-minded business tools including Google Drive, Trello, Box, Dropbox, and Zapier.
Why is Slack Banned in China?
In the past few years, China has cracked down on any sort of website that allows for free communication between two or more parties, as well as anything that allows unfiltered news to be distributed to the Chinese public. Most of these websites originate in the West, which includes a slew of media, social media, and productive tools. One website estimates that 20% of Alexa’s 100 most trafficked websites are blocked in China, including Slack.
Accessing Slack in China
Virtual private networks (VPNs) are the obvious choice to safely access your accounts and online content in China, but even that can be a difficult deal because of China’s impressive defensive grid. The key here is to really research which websites can handle the Chinese Great Firewall and which are available for download inside the borders for downloading. If you are visiting China for work or leisure, your best bet is to download a VPN client host before entering China to ensure you can access it during your stay.
Best VPNs for using Slack in China
1ExpressVPN
ExpressVPN doesn’t just get you access to all your online accounts and content, it does it with the fastest speeds of any VPN in the industry. It’s not just speed that separates ExpressVPN from the rest of the pack, however. It boasts the best in-class security and encryption along with unlimited bandwidth and server switches and a 30-day risk free guarantee. Its quick speeds make it a great VPN for mobile with unlimited bandwidth and server switches. Its speed comes from a battery of extra-fast servers located in 94 countries, nearly half of all countries in the world! It has split-tunneling functionality and a kill switch, plus zero-knowledge DNS. Try Now Risk Free
2VyprVPN
VyprVPN is a second VPN that can safely grant you access to all your online content. It’s based in Switzerland, which has strict privacy laws, and has very fast speeds along with app support for all 10 platforms. Its custom Chameleon protocol adds extra layers of protection and accessibility that are key when going up against Chinese protocol, and it adds in a kill switch and DNS leak protection. All these powerful tools make VyprVPN a quality VPN for Windows use.
