In April of this year, German newspapers took Ad Plus, the company responsible for ad block software, which blocks advertisements on a user’s browser, to court arguing that the software was engaged in anti-competitive business practices, which threatened their business model. The court ruled against the German newspapers with Ad Plus placing a spirited defense arguing that its role is defending an obvious consumer right: giving people the ability to control their own screens by letting them block annoying ads and protect their privacy. An argument the court upheld in its ruling. The Newspaper publishers also raised questions with regards to AdBlock Plus’ whitelisting service where Adblock Plus allows some of the advertising not considered annoying to be viewed.
The 2015 global report on ad blocking by Page fair, a firm whose core mission is to help companies “survive the rise of adblock” in partnership with Adobe says there are 198 million active adblock users around the world with the number having grown by 41% in the last 12 months to June. In 2015 alone, Ad Blocking has cost publishers close to 22 Billion dollars, which is a staggering number by any standards. Most of the ad blocking was restricted to web platforms with mobile platforms yet to pick up on ad blocking.
The most affected websites by ad-blocking software were gaming, social networking as well as other tech related sites. Ad Plus’ ad block has 60 million active users and boasts of having been downloaded nearly 400 million times. The least affected websites were those with health, charity, legal and government information. The more these people use these software solutions, the more it is difficult for publishers like to Techweez that rely heavily on ad revenue to compete competitively. So, go right ahead. remove that plugin.
