Now let’s examine how the rankings changed after the acquisition. VPN recommendations change after Kape purchases vpnMentor and Wizcase Now, perhaps you are wondering if the new ownership changes of these VPN review websites would have a change in the rankings and recommendations. Note: With both of these websites, you will only see the disclosures if you actually click on the “Ownership” link, which then opens a small box with the disclosure. Here is the disclosure we see on vpnMentor when you click on “Ownership” : Webselenese is based in Tel Aviv, Israel and was sold to Kape for $149.1 million, as you can see in the press release here.īoth vpnMentor and Wizcase now have a disclosure near the top of the websites explaining how they are owned by Kape. These are two large VPN review websites that collectively get about 6.8 million visitors per month according to Ahrefs data (May 2021). In March 2021, news broke that Kape had purchased Webselenese, which is the parent company of vpnMentor and Wizcase. Now let’s fast forward to 2021 when Kape entered the world of VPN review websites. To summarize, Kape is now the owner of four VPN services: CyberGhost, ZenMate, Private Internet Access, and also ExpressVPN. This trend of consolidation in the VPN industry is not something we like to see, since it creates fewer independent VPNs. Update: In September 2021, we learned about plans for Kape to purchase ExpressVPN. We wrote an in-depth report on Kape and Private Internet Access, including the history of each company. This was an interesting acquisition that greatly expanded Kape’s influence in the VPN market. Then, in 2019, Kape purchased Private Internet Access (PIA). In 2018, Kape purchased ZenMate VPN, which was a smaller VPN service based in Germany. However, we examined the history of Crossrider and discovered that while its platform was used for malware by third parties, Crossrider was not the creator or distributor of malware. Back in 2017, the company was named Crossrider and it was often connected with malware that infected devices via packaged software bundles - see this blog post from Malwarebytes. We have been following Kape since it first appeared on our radar in 2017 after buying CyberGhost VPN. Kape Technologies owns CyberGhost, Private Internet Access, Zenmate, and now ExpressVPN How serious of an issue is this? Well, you can decide that for yourselves after reading this report. When the same company runs both the VPN service and also the VPN review website that rates and recommends the same service, this can create a conflict of interest. In fact, some studies suggest that, “84 percent trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendation” - but is this trust warranted? In some cases, we believe the answer is no. Today, most people go online to research products and services before making a purchase. After all, a review is supposed to be unbiased and objective, otherwise it’s no different from an advertisement. Would you trust a movie review that was written by the director of the movie? Or how about a book review that was written by the book’s author? Of course, this would be absurd because there’s an obvious conflict of interest. Could any information on the website be trusted knowing that it was influenced by the owners of the site? In other words, they wrote their own glowing review. You learn that the VPN “review” website you have been reading is actually owned by the VPN service itself. You have read through the website, analyzed the pricing options, and are just about to purchase a subscription - but then something changes your mind. Imagine reading a glowing review online about a VPN service.
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