As of late 2018, Rakuten Viber had more than 1 billion registered users and also allows users to exchange media files such as images and videos. It also has a paid component for international landline and mobile calling services. Rakuten Viber has spread across the world with corporate offices in San Francisco, Minsk, Sofia, Moscow, Paris, Singapore, and Manila. Unfortunately for Chinese fans of Viber, that much-unmonitored freedom is too much for that country’s government. In late 2014, Viber was blocked in China, joining Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Taptalk, and Google on the country’s list of censored mega-sites.
Why Does China Block Communication SItes?
A second big reason is money. If an app accessible to all of China’s 1.4 billion citizens offers the equivalent of free international calls via VoIP, those people could stop paying money to China’s traditional telephone companies for the same service from China’s telecommunication companies. That loss of income would be enormous, and thus not acceptable by the powers that be.
VPN requirements for Use in China
China is not like most countries when it comes to virtual private network (VPN) usage. The Great Firewall of China – the infamous name for its complete control over its Internet infrastructure – is too much for many VPNs to handle. They simply have not invested enough money into security and encryption protocol to evade China’s security that notes unusual activity. With Viber being an interpersonal communication hub, greater latency times will slow down your connection when using VoIP or IM on Rakuten Viber. Third, an automatic kill switch should be standard practice for the VPN you use while traveling to China. Should your VPN connection drop, you definitely don’t want your true IP address exposed while visiting a website that has been banned for more than four years in China. People get fined, arrested, and deported for issues like that.
Top VPN Choices for Using Viber in China
1Private Internet Access (PIA) VPN
While it’s based in the United States, Private Internet Access (PIA) VPN gives users lots of security options and server choices, making it a great option for safely accessing Viber while you’re visiting China. Private Internet Access’s security is exactly what you want for accessing the internet safely while in China. It supports every major encryption protocol except IKEv2, has built-in DNS leak protection, SOCKS5 compatibility, and the all-important kill switch. It has a lot of server variety as well, more than 3,000 to choose from, which means there are plenty of choices in countries that border China to lower that latency time.
2VyprVPN
VyprVPN comes to you out of Switzerland, which is a big plus as that country has strict Internet user protection rights, basically the anti-China when it comes to online freedom. It has great security in its standard package including 256-bit AES encryption, zero-knowledge DNS practices, a kill switch, and its own NAT Firewall to keep out large-scale threat.
3PrivateVPN
PrivateVPN is another great option celebrating its 10-year anniversary as a company. It has some of the very best encryption available for a VPN – 2048-bit – and adds an automatic kill switch, built-in leak protection, and a strict no-logs policy to its offering.
