View source for Hola (VPN)

{{Short description|Freemium web and mobile application which provides a form of VPN service}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2020}}
{{Infobox company
| name = Hola
| logo = Hola! VPN logo.svg
| logo_caption =
| type = [[VPN]]
| traded_as =
| industry = [[Internet]]
| founder = Ofer Vilenski<br />Derry Shribman
| location_city =
| location_country = [[Israel]]
| locations = Worldwide
| founded = 2007
| area_served =
| key_people =
| products =
| brands =
| production =
| services = Unrestricted Internet Access
| homepage = {{URL|http://www.hola.org}}
}}
'''Hola''' is a [[freemium]] [[Web application|web]] and [[mobile application]] which provides a form of [[VPN service]] to its users through a [[peer-to-peer]] network. It also uses [[P2P caching|peer-to-peer caching]]. When a user accesses certain domains that are known to use geo-blocking, the Hola application redirects the request to go through the computers and Internet connections of other users in non-blocked areas, thereby circumventing the [[Geo-Blocking|blocking]]. Users of the free service share a portion of their idle upload bandwidth to be used for serving cached data to other users.<ref>{{cite web|title=Sweet: Hola lets you use Hulu, Pandora, Netflix, CBS, Fox, BBC iPlayer TV, and iTV from any country|url=https://thenextweb.com/apps/2013/01/24/sweet-hola-lets-you-use-hulu-pandora-netflix-cbs-fox-bbc-iplayer-tv-and-itv-from-any-country/|last=Protalinski|first=Emil|date=23 January 2013|website=The Next Web|access-date=28 September 2014}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{cite web|title=Reinventing The Web: A New App Lets You Watch Whatever TV Program You Want, Including The Olympics, Anywhere In The World|url=http://www.businessinsider.com/hola-tv-watch-olympics-vpn-blocker-netflix-world-2014-1?IR=T|last=Gell|first=Aaron|date=25 January 2014|website=[[Business Insider]]|access-date=28 September 2014}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Hola Unblocker Gives You Access to iPlayer, Netflix, Pandora, Hulu, and More Regardless of Region|url=https://lifehacker.com/hola-unblocker-gives-you-access-to-iplayer-netflix-pa-5978591|last=Klosowski|first=Thorin|date=24 January 2013|website=Lifehacker|language=en-us|access-date=1 May 2020}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{cite news|last=Turner|first=Adam|date=25 January 2013|title=Unlock Hulu and BBC iPlayer in a click with Hola|work=[[The Sydney Morning Herald]]|url=https://www.smh.com.au/technology/unlock-hulu-and-bbc-iplayer-in-a-click-with-hola-20130124-2d8zu.html|access-date=29 September 2014}}</ref> Paying users can choose to redirect all requests to peers but are themselves never used as peers.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url = https://hola.org/faq#in_cost|title = FAQ – Hola – Is Hola Free?|access-date = 6 October 2014|website = Hola}}</ref>
== History ==
In 1998, Ofer Vilenski and Derry Shribman founded [[KRFTech]], a software development tools company.<ref>{{cite news|title=Jungo Ltd. - Company Profile|url=http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=819160|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081230172843/http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=819160|url-status=dead|archive-date=30 December 2008|newspaper=BusinessWeek}}</ref> With the profits from the company, they started [[Jungo]] in 2000 to develop an operating system for [[home gateway]]s. In 2006, [[NDS Group|NDS (Cisco)]] acquired Jungo for $107 million.<ref>{{cite news|title=NDS to buy Israel's Jungo for up to $107.5 mln|url=http://uk.reuters.com/article/jungo-nds-idUKL0430354720061204|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160805120847/http://uk.reuters.com/article/jungo-nds-idUKL0430354720061204|url-status=dead|archive-date=5 August 2016|newspaper= Reuters|date= 4 December 2006}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last1=Ben-Artzi|first1=Amir|title= NDS to pay $107 million for Jungo|url= http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1245441|access-date= 28 September 2014|publisher= [[Electronic Engineering Times]]}}</ref>
In 2008, Vilenski and Shribman started investigating the idea of re-inventing HTTP by building a peer-to-peer [[overlay network]] that would employ peer-to-peer caching to accelerate content distribution and peer-to-peer routing to make the effective bandwidth to target sites much faster.<ref name=":2" /> This would make the Internet faster for users and cheaper to operate for content distributors. They started up Hola with $18 million from investors such as [[DFJ]] ([[Skype]], [[Hotmail]]), [[Horizons Ventures]] ([[Li Ka-Shing|Li Ka-shing]]'s venture capital fund),<ref>{{cite news|title=The story behind a HK billionaire's $130 million donation to the Technion|url= http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/.premium-1.550634|access-date= 28 September 2014|publisher=[[Haaretz]]}}</ref> Magma Venture Partners ([[Waze]]), Israel's Chief Scientist Fund, and others.<ref>{{cite news|date=25 October 2012|title=Faster Internet co Hola raises $10m|work=[[Globes (newspaper)|Globes]]|url=http://www.globes.co.il/en/article-1000792928|access-date=28 September 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Ofer Vilenski Co-Founder, Hola!|url=http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/person.asp?personId=819167&privcapId=46615242&previousCapId=122879&previousTitle=Giza%20Venture%20Capital|publisher=[[BusinessWeek]]|access-date=28 September 2014}}{{dead link|date=April 2023|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref>
Hola Networks Limited launched its network in late 2012,<ref name=":0" /> and it became popular in January 2013 when consumers started using Hola for [[Internet privacy]] and [[anonymity]] by utilizing the P2P routing for IP masking. "After being around for two months with 80 downloads a day, on January 23, 2013, at 5 PM Israel time, the product was good enough. That was the second it took off and went up overnight to 40,000 downloads a day", Vilenski told ''Startup Camel''.<ref>{{cite web|title='How Hola went from 80 daily new users to 40,000 overnight with zero marketing' (interview with Ofer Vilenski, co-founder and CEO of Hola for Startup Camel Podcast|url=http://startupcamel.com/ep-76-ofer-vilenski-hola/|access-date=3 June 2015|publisher=Startup Camel}}</ref>
In May 2015, Hola came under criticism from [[8chan]] founder [[Fredrick Brennan]] after the site was reportedly attacked by exploiting the Hola network.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web|title=Hola: A free VPN with a side of botnet|url=https://www.zdnet.com/article/hola-a-free-vpn-with-a-side-of-botnet/|last=Osborne|first=Charlie|date=29 May 2015|website=ZDNet|language=en|access-date=1 May 2020}}</ref> In late 2014, Hola had begun selling access to its userbase as [[exit node]]s, under the name Luminati, charging $20 per gigabyte for bandwidth that was actually coming from their free VPN users.<ref name=":3" /> This was confirmed by Hola founder Ofer Vilenski who argued that this has always been part of the agreement with Hola's free users when signing up for the service.<ref name=":3" /> After Brennan emailed the company, Hola modified its [[FAQ]] to include a notice that its users are acting as exit nodes for paid users of Hola's sister service Luminati.<ref name=":3" /> Other criticism stemmed from vulnerabilities inherent to the software, which could allow an [[Man-in-the-middle attack|attacker to deliver malware]] to Hola users.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Your Tool to Watch Netflix Abroad Also Makes You Vulnerable to Hacking|url=https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/8qxjnb/your-tool-to-watch-netflix-abroad-also-makes-you-vulnerable-to-hacking|last=Franceschi-Bicchierai|first=Lorenzo|date=29 May 2015|website=Vice|language=en|access-date=1 May 2020}}</ref> The Hola browser has also been used for [[distributed denial of service]] attacks.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Alexander|first1=Martin|url=https://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/06/10/hola_gets_holes_poked_in_client_lulzsec/|website=The Register|access-date=7 June 2017|title=Do you use Hola VPN? You could be part of a DDoS, content theft – or worse}}</ref>
In response to the criticism, Vilenski told ''Business Insider'', "[we have been] listening to the conversations about Hola and while we think we've been clear about what we are doing, we have decided to provide more details about how this works, and thus the changes [to the website] in the past 24 hours".<ref>{{cite news|last=Price|first=Rob|date=28 May 2015|title=A wildly popular Google Chrome extension was being used as a giant botnet|work=Business Insider|url=http://www.businessinsider.com/hola-used-for-botnet-on-chrome-2015-5|access-date=30 May 2015}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=חברות הטכנולוגיה שצריכות לבקש סליחה|url=https://www.calcalist.co.il/internet/articles/0,7340,L-3669627,00.html|date=22 September 2015|website=Calcalist|trans-title=The tech companies that have to ask for forgiveness|access-date=1 May 2020}}</ref> According to the security researchers who performed the audit, Hola updated its software but some of the vulnerabilities remained as of 1 June 2015.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Hola Claims to Have Fixed Holes, But Security Researchers Disagree|url=https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/ypwjbg/hola-claims-to-have-fixed-holes-but-security-researchers-disagree|last=Franceschi-Bicchierai|first=Lorenzo|date=1 June 2015|website=Vice|language=en|access-date=1 May 2020}}</ref>
In November 2016, Hola reached 100 million users.<ref>{{Cite news|title=Beating the Internet censor|url=https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-beating-the-internet-censor-1001179725|last=Tsipori|first=Tali|date=6 March 2017|website=Globes|language=he|access-date=1 May 2020}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|title=HOLA הישראלית חצתה את רף ה-100 מיליון המשתמשים|url=https://www.globes.co.il/news/article.aspx?did=1001163040|date=27 November 2016|website=Globes|language=he|trans-title=Israeli HOLA has crossed the threshold of 100 million users|access-date=1 May 2020 | last1=גלובס | first1=שירות }}</ref> In August 2017, Hola sold a majority stake in Luminati to EMK Capital, a UK private equity investment firm.<ref>{{Cite web|title=EMK קונה חטיבה של Hola Networks בכ-200 מיליון דולר|url=https://www.calcalist.co.il/internet/articles/0,7340,L-3718934,00.html|last=Ravet|first=Hagar|date=10 August 2017|website=Calcalist|trans-title=EMK buys a $ 200 million division of Hola Networks|access-date=1 May 2020}}</ref> The deal was potentially valued at $200 million, with Hola founders retaining some stake in Luminati and Vilenski remaining as CEO of the Luminati.<ref>{{Cite news|title=EMK buys stake in Luminati for nearly $200m|url=https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-emk-buys-majority-stake-in-luminati-at-200m-valuation-1001200869|date=10 August 2017|website=Globes|language=en|access-date=1 May 2020}}</ref> In 2019, the final purchase price was revealed to be $125 million in exchange for 75.6% of the company's shares with the company evaluated at $165 million.<ref>{{Cite web|title=לומינטי: אופס, כך התכווץ השווי של האקזיט|url=https://www.calcalist.co.il/internet/articles/0,7340,L-3755495,00.html|last=Orbach|first=Meir|date=3 February 2019|website=Calcalist|trans-title=Luminati: Oops, that's how the Exit has shrunk|access-date=1 May 2020}}</ref>
In March 2021, the company changed its brand name from Luminati to [[Bright Data]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-03-17 |title=Luminati Networks Becomes Bright Data with Focus on Web Transparency and Continuous Innovation |url=https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210317005476/en/Luminati-Networks-Becomes-Bright-Data-with-Focus-on-Web-Transparency-and-Continuous-Innovation |access-date=2023-02-14 |website=www.businesswire.com |language=en}}</ref>
== Architecture ==
The Hola company website claimed in 2014 that the "Internet is slowed down by server response times, Internet [[Congestion (traffic)|congestion]], [[Round-trip time|round trip times]], and poorly written communication stacks in [[operating systems]]. Hola removes these bottlenecks by securely [[cache (computing)|caching]] content on [[peer-to-peer|peers]] as they view it, and later serving it up to other nearby peers as they need it. Hola also compresses communication between peers to further speed the net."<ref>{{Cite web|url = https://hola.org/faq|title = FAQ – Hola|access-date = 6 October 2014|website = Hola|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140303020510/http://hola.org/faq|archive-date=3 March 2014}}</ref>
== Platforms ==
Hola is distributed as a set of [[browser extension]]s for [[Firefox]], [[Microsoft Edge]], and [[Opera (web browser)|Opera]], as well as applications for [[Microsoft Windows]] and [[macOS]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://hola.org/download|title=Download Hola, unblock restricted sites - Free!|access-date=16 February 2021|publisher=Hola}}</ref> Hola has also released an [[Android (operating system)|Android]] application<ref>{{cite web|title=Hola Lets You Watch Region-Blocked Videos From Any Country For Free|date=25 January 2013|url=http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2013/01/hola-lets-you-watch-region-blocked-videos-from-any-country-for-free/|publisher=[[Lifehacker]]|access-date=28 September 2014}}</ref> and an [[IPhone applications|iPhone]] and [[iPad]] application,<ref>{{cite web|title=Can I get Hola for my iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch?|url=https://hola.org/faq#an_iphone|publisher=Official Website|access-date=28 September 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Hola Unblocker – Easily Access Region-Blocked Content|url=http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/hola-unblocker-easily-access-region-blocked-content/|website=www.makeuseof.com|date=19 May 2013 |access-date=28 September 2014}}</ref> along with a dedicated browser. <ref>{{Cite web |title=Hola! The content you want - for free! |url=https://hola.org/browser |access-date=2022-08-16 |website=Hola Free VPN - Access Any Website |language=en}}</ref>
== See also ==
* [[Comparison of virtual private network services]]
== References ==
{{Reflist|2}}
== External links ==
* {{official|hola.org|name=Hola Official website}}
{{VPN}}
[[Category:Virtual private network services]]
[[Category:Web applications]]