Almost 2/3 of Poles want the data from the websites they visit to be stored in Poland. Where are our favorite sites actually hosted?
As shown by the results of JakWybracHosting.pl’s latest survey, only slightly less than half (49%) of websites visited by Polish Internet users store their data on servers in Poland. This means that most of the content we encounter on the Polish part of the Internet is physically located outside our country.
The most popular locations, apart from Poland, for website hosting are: Canada (15%), the United States (8%), Germany (7%), the Netherlands (6%) and the United Kingdom (4%). This data sheds light on the global nature of the Internet, where national boundaries become less important.
A total of 68 percent of websites visited from Poland are hosted in European Union countries, highlighting the importance of the European digital market. The remaining 32 percent servers are located outside the EU, proving the global reach and diversity of content available to Polish users.
Data on the network. What are the expectations of Polish Internet users?
According to the latest public opinion survey, conducted by SW Research for JakWybracHosting.pl, as many as 65 percent of Polish internet users claim that the websites they use should store their data in Poland. This is a significant majority, which underlines the desire to keep data within national borders. In the context of the growing awareness of the protection and security of personal data, this result is not surprising. On the other hand, 19 percent respondents believe that data can be stored in any country of the European Union.
If we compare these results with the actual location of the servers hosting websites visited by Poles, we see a certain contrast. Even though 49 percent websites actually host data in Poland, 51 percent data is stored outside the country, including 32 percent outside the European Union. This indicates a significant discrepancy between user expectations and the actual situation.
The importance of server location
As Mateusz Mazurek from JakWybracHosting.pl says, locating the server close to the end user is crucial for website loading speed. Faster sites improve the overall user experience, which has a direct impact on their online behavior. Research shows that 45 percent Polish Internet users are less willing to make purchases on slow-loading websites, 51 percent will not return to a website that loads slowly, and 39 percent will not recommend such a website to others. Loading speed also has a significant impact on SEO as it is one of the ranking factors in search engines.
– It is best if the server is located in the same country where most website visitors are – adds Mazurek. He explains that the location, both in the country of origin of most users and in a neighboring country or at least on the same continent, minimizes the server response time, which translates into better performance and user experience. – However, keep in mind that the location of the company’s headquarters does not have to correspond to the location of its servers. They may be in another place or country, the expert emphasizes.
For global websites, where the recipients are located in different parts of the world, the solution may be to use the CDN (Content Delivery Network) service. CDN allows you to store a copy of the website on servers around the world, ensuring pages load quickly regardless of the user’s location.
The survey was conducted in November 2023 by the website JakWybracHosting.pl on a sample of 10,000 random websites visited from Poland in September 2023 according to Chrome UX Report (Google). The public opinion survey commissioned by the website JakWybracHosting.pl was conducted by SW Research in October 2023 using the CAWI technique among a representative group of 808 Poles aged 16 and over.
Source: Do Rzeczy
Roy Brown is a renowned economist and author at The Nation View. He has a deep understanding of the global economy and its intricacies. He writes about a wide range of economic topics, including monetary policy, fiscal policy, international trade, and labor markets.
