This article is by Private Internet Access (PIA).

PIA charge $3.33 - $6.95 per month. Let's average this to $5.10 per month.

1 GB bandwidth from hosting providers is usually $0.02 - $0.15. Let's average this to $0.09 per month.

Let's assume an average PIA customers uses 60 GB data transfer per month. (That's what Comcast say is the average data usage for one of their customers.)

That works out as as bandwidth only cost of $5.40 per month per customer. (That's already a loss of $0.30 per month.)

Add in rent, servers, taxes, staff, their Clinton-esque 'correct the record' marketing campaign on Reddit, etc., and that monthly loss becomes significant.

Who is funding this loss making VPN company?

And why?

While the above may sound very tin foil hat, I recently had an interview with a VPN company who market themselves in China as a US company who will help you get past the Great Fire Wall. It turns out they're actually a Chinese company. Shady-as-fuck.

If you want to use a VPN to protect your privacy, roll your own using a host who will accept Bitcoin (ensure your bitcoins are bought for cash and tumbled), and use it in combination with TOR. Obviously you need to dump your Facebook / Instagram / Google / etc. / accounts.