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Many of the world’s largest Internet companies, like Google and Facebook, rely heavily on advertising to finance their online empires.

But that business model is increasingly coming under threat, with one in five smartphone users, or almost 420 million people worldwide, blocking advertising when browsing the web on cellphones. That represents a 90 percent annual increase, according to a new report from PageFair, a start-up that helps to recoup some of this lost advertising revenue, and Priori Data, a company that tracks smartphone applications.

The use of ad-blocking software has divided the online world. Supporters say it allows people to get better access to content without having to suffer through abrasive ads. Opponents, particularly companies that rely on advertising, say blocking ads violates the implicit contract that people agree to when viewing online material, much of which is paid for by digital advertising.

Mobile ad blockers, though, have become particularly widespread in emerging markets, where people are more reliant on their smartphones to use the Internet.

Already, 36 percent of the smartphone users in the Asia-Pacific region have so-called ad-blocking browsers on their mobile devices, allowing them to remove online ads when they use the Internet. In India and Indonesia — two of the world’s fastest-growing Internet markets — that figure is almost two-thirds of smartphone users, according to the report.

“We found the results surprising because in the West we don’t often consider what’s going on in developing countries,” said Sean Blanchfield, chief executive of PageFair. “It’s only a matter of time until mobile ad blocking comes to the West.”

Patrick Kane, chief executive of Priori Data, said greater use of the software in emerging markets was driven by attempts to minimize spending on mobile data. Ad blockers help conserve data and make websites load faster by not downloading ads on people’s phones.

While mobile ad blocking is mostly an emerging market phenomenon now, it is costing the global advertising industry billions of dollars a year in lost revenue. Roughly 200 million people also have ad-blocking software on their desktop computers, PageFair estimates.

Still, only 4.3 million Americans, or 2.2 percent of smartphone owners, used ad blockers — through browsers or other services — on their smartphones as of March. By comparison, 159 million people in China have installed ad-blocking software on their cellphones, the report said.

But as people in Western markets increasingly rely on smartphones to reach the Internet, the use of mobile ad blocking is expected to rise.

In June, Three UK, a British cellphone provider, will conduct an ad-blocking test across its network, allowing people to opt in to remove ads whenever they use their mobile phones. Digicel, a carrier that operates mostly in the Caribbean, has started offering a similar service.

Analysts say such efforts may breach so-called net neutrality rules, which require all online data, including intrusive ads, to be treated equally. Legal experts, though, say the use of ad blocking has yet to be challenged in courts over whether it meets net neutrality standards.

Despite this legal uncertainty, people’s interest in blocking ads, particularly on their cellphones, is unlikely to wane.

“It’s already used by hundreds of millions of people,” Mr. Blanchfield, of PageFair, said. “You can’t put the cat back in the bag.”


http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/31/business/international/smartphone-ad-blocking-software-mobile.html?_r=0


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Some websites are impossible to load because of all the ads. Crashes, etc. I see an opportunity for the bitcoin bug brains...

How long before it is just stuck in the TOS for these sites?
Being that it has not gone to court they could still drum up a way to force people to unblock until it is pushed through the courts to make people comply.
Interesting about the Chinese stats,wonder if there is more to it than just blocking ads,like some way to circumvent regional issues.

Then there will have to define what addons are appropriate or not in your state approved internet browser...

Internet is not something which can be controlled or even regulated by the government. Attempts to regulate the internet have always ended in failure (China for example). If you are tech savvy, then you will be able to beat the restrictions imposed by the government. And it is not possible to prosecute everyone who is using a VPN or browsing through TOR.

I agree to this. You can't force anyone to watch ads that they don't like to earn for yourself. Both the advertiser and Viewers would find different ways to advertise and avoid advertisement. Paying viewers to watch ads could be a solution.

That is because all those sites abused mobile ads.
They brought this upon themself.
Stupid advertisements that redirected to google play without notice, popups telling you you have an virus, huge banners that break webpages and so much more crap.


EDIT: I have also noticed certain friends DO disable ads if they actually like the site.
Lots of friends of mine use a certain anime streaming site and most of them disable ads there because the site actually adds value to their browsing.

Create your own ads in-house and feed custom images and jump links hosted on the sites you run for your visitors.

I own websites which bring me some income via adverts so I'm very concerned about this, and that scares me.

I can fight with a code that would sniff ad-blockers and tell the visitors they're f*cking me with their software, and that I would not send them my content unless they remove it, but I'm afraid I would lose them if I do that.


That wouldn't work. Advertisers are used to the choices and features of Adwords and a single guy, or even a small team, cannot compete. And it would take a dedicated sales person to convince advertisers, something I just can't afford.

The serpent is biting its own tail.

I'm not sure if its good,some helpful sites stay up only thanks to revenue from ads,but then again some ads are really annoying.

It indeed does work. I do it every day, by myself. Sure, the big money makers are blocked and the revenue stream is smaller, but it's much more preferable to no revenue because of blocked ads.

Don't lose your sleep over it. I also own a few blogs, which gives me small pocket-change from time to time. I am not much worried about the ad blockers. Only the tech savvy guys are using them. And they are just around 1% of the internet users. It is not an issue, as long as the remaining 99% refrains from using it.

Ads quite often make pages unloadable, they cost me money if I'm using mobile data and there's the risk of something naughty hiding in them. None of that works for me.

Advertisers have fucked themselves. If they agreed to keep things lightweight, text only and secure then I'm fine with it. Until then I'm not going to pay to be annoyed and possibly raped by unsolicited shit.

Yup. This will be the solution - instead of using intermediary advertising networks that are easily blocked, just create your own ads. The development of ad-blockers will just remove the middlemen.

Have you ever tried to sell advertising space? It's far from easy, and you cannot create, nor host, the ads, the clients create their own ads and they want it hosted on a website not related to the editor, but on a platform they can trust.

You don't need to sell advertising space to do it, but you can if you want to. I don't do that yet though.  I display the visitor custom affiliate program ad images and links if they are running an ad blocker or if they have active scripting turned off. I select from certain ads at random that are contextual to the content of the page, with checks to make sure no ad is repeated on the same page load. There are also some generic backup ads in case the content is niche and I have few ads fitting the tagged content, but that happens less frequently as you build onto your application and database.

Dont do long video ads on news sites.
Dont have flashy and anoying ads on your site.
Dont have a ton of ads because the load time goes through the roof.

I agree with that, news site are very intrusive when it come to adverts, any old shite they put on.
Also those annoying videos that you have to close in x amount of seconds.


I do not use blocking software on my usual browser, except one that I use on Firefox occasionaly, this blocks really annoying crap.
Have to manually do it yourself though, it quite amazing and very powerful http://rip.mozdev.org/ (http://rip.mozdev.org/)

I have no idea what you're talking about. What is that "visitor custom affiliate program ad images and links"?
I don't get to choose the ads which appear on my websites, it's Google which does that, contextually.

Well for me, ad-blocking is just right because some ads slows down a site's loading time and cost more for mobile data users just like me. Instead of advertising, I think that it is right putting an advertisement to get online revenue though do not overload it  ;D and Ad-Blocking softwares should be optimized.

I've said all that I am willing to say on this issue. Part of my business is consulting and this specific issue is a revenue generator for me. If you're interested in purchasing consulting and/or development time from me, shoot me pm and we can discuss terms. If not, I wish all you the best.

No, I'm not interested. I've been using adsense since 2003, and I'm pretty well aware of what's doable, or not doable, with it. I know google has launched a system on this issue a few months ago, but friends who have tried it told me it didn't work.