In March 2013, a Japanese student by the name of Daiyuu Nobori set up VPN Gate, a free VPN service that he hoped would be used by Internet users who wish to avoid their country’s online content restrictions but don’t have the necessary funds to use a paid VPN service.
The service relies on volunteers with a broadband connection to download the server software and set up Public VPN Relay Servers for others to use. Initially, that number was around 100, today there are over 5200 of these servers around the world.