AD BLOCKING A 21st Century Fad or the Debate of our Lifetime?
presented by
you, inc. STEVE LAM
YUXIN LI
TABBI LOTER
KACI LAMBETH
WHAT IS
AD BLOCKING? Ad blocking is a simple term for any kind of software or hardware that removes ads from a webpage. They usually take the form of a plug-in or web browser extension, such as AdBlock or Adblock Plus.
Ad Blocking has been around for over a decade, but has recently picked up steam with an estimated 15-17% of the U.S. population using ad blockers.*
HOW DOES
IT WORK?
While a webpage loads, the ad blocker looks at the site’s scripts and compares them to a list of sites and scripts it was built to block. If it finds any, it blocks them from being served to the user and either replaces them with something else or leaves the space blank.
Some third party, for-profit ad blockers, create “whitelists” by offering advertisers access to their users for a fee or for meeting certain “acceptable ad” guidelines. They are essentially acting as gatekeepers between advertisers and audiences, causing much of the recent controversy. http://www.businessinsider.com/interview-with-the-inventor-of-the-ad-blocker-henrik-aasted-srensen-2015-7
WHY DO PEOPLE USE AD BLOCKERS? PERFORMANCE The average page has dozens of ad tags, and ad providers are typically built with no regard to performance (loading hundreds of tags, images, megabytes of video, etc.), so preventing all of this from loading drastically
EXPERIENCE
SECURITY
speeds up the website.
The display (banner) ecosystem
Ads, such as, outstream videos or
is still the largest part of online ads,
in-image banners are often annoying and disrupt the user from viewing the
and has become a mishmash of
content that they’re actually trying to
technologies; Ad networks have allowed
read in the first place. This only leads
for third-party JavaScript and Flash files to
to negative effects and is arguably
run in ad slots. However, both of these
the biggest reason for using ad
options allow for malicious code to be
blockers.
PRIVACY
run, which has led to users getting infected with viruses
Most ad networks and tracking systems (like Google Analytics) collect information about user behavior and pages visited, which can lead to privacy issues. Ad blockers stop all of this and make it easy to browse privately.
and malware on a massive scale.
SO WHAT? “I think there have been three catalysts. First, the obvious one: Apple has taken a pretty hard-core stance that ad governance has been poor. They wanted to make some changes with the disruption of the iOS 9 browser. The second one is that more people are precious about what they're willing to receive on their device—as mobile penetration has gone up, you've hit that conflict. Lastly, consumers are smarter than ever, and many of them are aware that a big chunk of their data plan is being consumed by these ads.” Jared Belsky, President, 360i Digital Marketing Agency
“The advertising ecosystem has really gotten caught up in the capabilities—from an advertiser [and] publisher perspective—that technology has to offer. A lot of the innovation has not been incredibly empathetic with speed, cleanness and [data] lightness of the products. That's part of what has gotten us here.” Jed Hartman, Chief Revenue Officer, The Washington Post
Ad blockers cost publishers an estimated
$22 billion in 2015. *
There are
45 million
active ad blocking users in the U.S. as of 2015. *
“Ad blocking has always been mainly a desktop phenomenon. We are the biggest ad blocker, and we alone have 400 million downloads of our desktop product. I do think that it was already quite a large phenomenon and perhaps something that a lot of people were OK with ignoring.” Ben Williams, Communications and Operations Manager, Eyeo GmbH, maker of Adblock Plus:
“Inherent to what some of the folks are saying is that the ads that are being shown on the Web have just gone overboard and people don't want to see them anymore in contrast to ads in other mediums like TV and on radio. The fact is that ad blockers are going to wherever the technology allows them to go.” Brian Kennish, CEO, Rocketship, maker of Adblock Fast
https://blog.pagefair.com/2015/ad-blocking-report/
WHO’S RIGHT?// WHOSE RIGHTS?
Blocking ads from websites deprive content publishers of a significant source of revenue, disregarding their rights. Publisher’s work needs to be appreciated and need audiences to monetize. As for the content, the sites should contain what the publisher’s wishes to show, including ads.
Brands’ audience access rights are dismissed with ad blocking. Brands need access to publisher’s audiences in order to reach desired impressions. Brands go through long procedures to produce the effective advertising they paid for. Ad blocking denies these ads, not allowing the user to experience the whole content.
*SOURCES SOURCES SOURCES
As stated many times, ‘the Internet belongs to everyone’, reinstates that consumers’ have control rights over content. However, advertisers fail to remember that the web browser is the user agent. Software that is chosen by the user is under control of the user and is meant to carry out the user’s wishes. Ad blocking allows consumers to have control, less viruses, privacy rights and push advertisers for more quality, relatable advertisements.
APPLE
On September 16, 2015 Apple released its newest iPhone operating system, iOS 9, which gives more tools to developers to create ad blocking applications for their mobile web browser, Safari 4. With Safari accounting for 52% of all mobile web browsing 3, this release is expected to be a game changer, and estimated to cost $1 billion in advertising revenues 1.
SAMSUNG
Following Apple’s move, Samsung released an API that allows Adblock Fast to enable advertising filters within its pre-installed Android browser on February 1st of this year 6. With two of the largest smart phone manufacturers supporting the development of ad blockers for their devices, the percentage of ad blocking occurring on mobile devices will most definitely increase from it’s 2% rate in q2 of 2015 2.
Shortly after Samsung announced its support of Ad Block Fast on its devices, Google pulled Ad Block Fast from the Google Play store 10. This was not a lash back at all adblockers, however. Even though Google makes most of its revenue from advertisements 10, they continue to play nice with Adblock Plus and pay the fee to be on their whitelist 11.
BRAVE
Mozilla Firefox’s former CEO, Brendan Eich, has been developing a new web browser, Brave, that has built in ad blocking that will replace missing content with their own ads and splitting the revenue between itself, publishers, and ad providers 8. Set to be released later this year, it’s success or failure could be a telling sign for the internet of the future and advertisers’ place in it.
RECENT
DEVELOPMENTS ADBLOCK PLUS
One of the top ad blocking plug-ins has been in the news recently after Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) denied Adblock Plus’s attendance to their annual leadership conference in Palm Desert, CA 5. IAB responded that the conference was for “important digital industry stakeholders” only, but with over 400 million downloads worldwide, Adblock Plus affects everyone who advertises or relies on advertising revenue online 7. This is is not the kind of problem that will go away by ignoring it.
IAB
The IAB’s senior VP Scott Cunningham recently apologized for the chaotic state of digital advertising these days in a blog post 9. In response, the IAB is launching a LEAN ad program, standing Light, Encrypted, Ad-Choice, and Non-Invasive ad guidelines promising friendlier, more secure ads 9. 1 http://www.businessinsider.com/ubs-says-ad-revenue-impact-ofios-9-ad-blocking-will-only-be-1-billion-2015-9 2 http://fortune.com/2015/09/21/apple-adblock-stats/ 3 https://blog.pagefair.com/2015/ad-blocking-report/ 4 http://www.wired.com/2015/09/apple-taunting-publishers-adblocking-apple-news/ 5 https://adblockplus.org/blog/iab-dis-invites-us-disses-compromiseand-buries-dissent 6 http://www.engadget.com/2016/02/01/samsung-internet-ad-blocker/ 7 http://www.computerworld.com/article/3023840/internet/silencingdissent-iab-blocks-adblock-plus-from-internet-advertisingconference.html 8 http://www.engadget.com/2016/01/20/former-mozilla-ceo-makesweb-browser/ 9 https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2015/10/15/ amid-the-adblockalypse-advertisers-apologize-for-messing-up-theweb/ 10 http://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/feb/03/google-pulls-adblocking-app-for-samsung-phones 11 http://www.businessinsider.com/google-microsoft-amazon-taboolapay-adblock-plus-to-stop-blocking-their-ads-2015-2
INDUSTRY
REACTIONS IS IT LEGAL?
CAN WE COMPROMISE?
More discussions between the publishers and consumers to try to figure out how to fix the problem. “We try to talk to them about the value exchange, and we try to ask them what type of ads they like and don’t like,” Jed Hartman, The Washington Post
To counteract toward the revolutionary storm by Adblockers. The publisher's has made the following moves.
There has been discussion over the and the ethics of ad-block. Some news reports identify the business model of ad-blocking softwares as "Mafia-like" extortions or blackmails that cuts revenue from publishers and ad agencies. So, whether third party ad-blocking is legal. Well, the answer is that it's not entirely illegal. The lawsuits against ad blocking software companies has long been going on. According to CNET.com's report in 2007, ad blocking companies such as Internet Fast Forward has been accused for violating copyright of the webpage by changing the webpage content without permission. Other than the copyright violation, the third-party ad blocking software is also facing the issue of violate the terms of service agreement of the websites. Many websites prohibits the use of ad blockers in their terms of service agreement, such as MySpace.com.
First, websites after being threatened by ad blockers and even page clean up plugins like Readability, have realized the importance of quality content. They prioritize the visibility and readability of the content. However, they also have wisely arranged the positions of the ads in relationship to the content, so that the ads would no longer be offensive to the readers. The Ad blocking softwares have been forbidden by many websites, such as Yahoo. The websites had to violently fight back by forcing the users to close the ad blocker, or else the website would not show the entire content. The Ad blocking companies have also compromised, while standing between the benefit of consumers/ audiences and the side of the advertisers. They claimed that since they have realized not all advertisements are undesirable, they would unblock advertisements that meets their requirements. However, it sounds like only another excuse for running the business model.
LOOKING AHEAD One thing for sure to be expected in the future is more lawsuit cases towards ad-blocking softwares. Although some ad blockers have been determined as legal in Germany, the US does not yet have a specific legislation towards ad blocking software. The collaboration between ad blockers and agencies that help publishers to make money through ad-blocking software. Either by putting user experience first or by paying the ad-blocking softwares to be on the whitelist, advertisers will be forced to search for legs up against their competition.