Internet giants wage war on pop-up ad blockers
Internet users may dream about ad-free surfing, but for advertisers and web publishers, who rely on ads to fund content, ad-blocking applications are the stuff of nightmares.
Imagine being able to surf the web and watch videos online without having to swat away pesky pop-up ads?
These days you can, thanks to small programs like Adblock Plus that are available free for download and that arm your browser to defend against ads.
Flashing banner ads, pre-roll ads (short ads that play before a video), pop-up notices that cover the whole screen few of them make it past ad blocking software.
In the beginning, the applications acted under the radar, and were known mainly only to young people or the really tech-savvy. But now theyre catching on.
Adblock Plus has nearly five million active users in France, with a further two million in the United Kingdom and 1.5 million in Spain.
Worldwide, they have amassed about 144 million active users, up 69 per cent in a year, according to a September report from Adobe software developer and PageFair, a company that helps publishers see which ads are being blocked.
Depending on the website, the percentage of viewers equipped with ad-blocking software ranges from 10 to 60 percent
Internet users may dream about ad-free surfing, but for advertisers and web publishers, who rely on ads to fund content, ad-blocking applications are the stuff of nightmares.
This is no small matter; it affects all publishers. Our members have lost an estimated 20 to 40 per cent of their advertising revenue, Laure de Lataillade, CEO of GESTE, an association of web publishers in gaming, media, music and other domains, told AFP.
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Internet giants wage war on pop-up ad blockers