Massive says network passes 100 billion web requests

Massive said its network has passed 100 billion web requests a month, a milestone it said reflects rising demand for residential proxy services.

It has also processed nearly 500 billion requests since January 2024. Over the same period, daily active devices on its network rose to millions in September 2026, which Massive described as a 16-fold increase in two years, while monthly global access expanded to more than 10 million residential IPs.

Residential proxy networks route internet traffic through consumer internet connections rather than data centre servers. Businesses use them to access websites from different locations and connection types for activities including web data collection, cybersecurity, market intelligence and artificial intelligence-related tasks.

The announcement comes amid increased scrutiny of the sector. In July, the FBI seized hundreds of domains linked to NetNut, a residential proxy service, underscoring concerns about how some networks are built and whether users have clearly consented to take part.

Jason Grad, Chief Executive Officer of Massive, said the company wants to draw a distinction between opt-in networks and services that rely on compromised devices or on users not fully understanding what they have agreed to.

"People hear residential proxies and often have an immediate negative reaction. I completely understand why, because this industry has unfortunately attracted some unscrupulous players. However, that doesn't mean the underlying technology isn't incredibly useful," said Jason Grad, Chief Executive Officer of Massive.

"The challenge for us as a company is to change this perception and be much more transparent about how networks are built, how users consent, who gets access and what happens when someone abuses this access."

Massive said its network is built on devices whose owners have opted in, allowing customers to route web requests through residential connections around the world. It said those arrangements support customers that need access to the live web through local connections rather than conventional hosting infrastructure.

Compliance focus

Massive said it has introduced controls aimed at limiting misuse of its network. These include know-your-customer checks, identity verification, traffic controls, port restrictions and customer-level controls.

It also maintains a blocklist covering about five million URLs and domains, according to the company. Massive said its compliance systems blocked around 70% of account requests between August 17 and September 15.

The company has also published a live abuse tracker showing blocked accounts and traffic that fails its standards. This forms part of a broader effort to provide more visibility into how access is controlled and how abuse is handled.

Grad said scale in the proxy market brings added obligations for operators. "We're processing hundreds of billions of requests every month, and our ambition is to reach trillions. We are seeing what is happening across the web at a scale that very few companies can see, and that gives us both an opportunity and a responsibility to be clear and transparent about how this infrastructure works," he said.

Growing market

Demand for residential proxy services has risen alongside growth in automated web access, data gathering and AI systems that rely on current online information. Unlike static datasets, many of these applications require continuous access to live websites, often from multiple geographies.

That demand has also intensified debate over where legitimate infrastructure ends and abuse begins. Critics of the sector have pointed to opaque user consent practices, malware-based botnets and weak customer screening across parts of the market.

Massive is positioning itself around the argument that consent and monitoring should define legitimate providers. Grad said that distinction should be visible rather than implied.

"There's a major difference between a network where people knowingly opt in and one where devices are compromised or people don't understand what they've agreed to. We want that distinction to be visible and something the industry can hold us accountable for," he said.

The company lists customers including OSINT, Traveldax, Seltz, Snowflake and Shopee. Grad added: "Saying trust us isn't good enough. If we're going to operate infrastructure this important, we should be willing to show people what we're blocking, how we're policing the network and how we're responding when something goes wrong."