iOS 9 poised to be 'game changer' as ad blocking already costs publishers $22B yearly
With this fall's release of iOS 9, Apple will allow users to natively block content in mobile Safari for the first time --?a change which at least one study believes will be a "game changer" in an industry that already costs publishers more than $20 billion per year.
The number of internet users blocking ads has exploded in the last year, according to a new report from PageFair and Adobe, jumping 41 percent over that period to reach nearly 200 million monthly active users worldwide. The increase is even more pronounced on the Mac, with the number of Safari users running ad blocking extensions rising 71 percent to 9 million.
Publishers will lose $21.8 billion in 2015 thanks to the practice, a figure that could nearly double to more than $41 billion by 2016.
Until now, companies that depend on web ads for revenue have been granted somewhat of a reprieve with the shift to mobile, where ad blocking is not as prevalent --?just 1.6 percent of the blocked traffic PageFair observed in the previous quarter came from mobile devices. The firm believes that's set to change, however, with iOS 9's new content blocking abilities.
"The release of iOS 9 in the Fall of 2015 may be a game changer, as it will allow users to easily install ad blocking from the App Store," the report says.
"Mobile Safari represents 52% of the mobile browsing market (and 14% of total web browsing). With support for ad block apps in iOS 9, we expect ad blocking on mobile Safari to trend towards the levels seen in the mobile version of Firefox [16%]."
While Apple will not block ads in iOS 9 by default, the new content blockers will allow users to install extensions that do so, much like they can on safari for the Mac. In addition to ads, blockers could be used to prevent tracking scripts from running, another blow to online marketers.
The number of internet users blocking ads has exploded in the last year, according to a new report from PageFair and Adobe, jumping 41 percent over that period to reach nearly 200 million monthly active users worldwide. The increase is even more pronounced on the Mac, with the number of Safari users running ad blocking extensions rising 71 percent to 9 million.
Publishers will lose $21.8 billion in 2015 thanks to the practice, a figure that could nearly double to more than $41 billion by 2016.
Until now, companies that depend on web ads for revenue have been granted somewhat of a reprieve with the shift to mobile, where ad blocking is not as prevalent --?just 1.6 percent of the blocked traffic PageFair observed in the previous quarter came from mobile devices. The firm believes that's set to change, however, with iOS 9's new content blocking abilities.
"The release of iOS 9 in the Fall of 2015 may be a game changer, as it will allow users to easily install ad blocking from the App Store," the report says.
"Mobile Safari represents 52% of the mobile browsing market (and 14% of total web browsing). With support for ad block apps in iOS 9, we expect ad blocking on mobile Safari to trend towards the levels seen in the mobile version of Firefox [16%]."
While Apple will not block ads in iOS 9 by default, the new content blockers will allow users to install extensions that do so, much like they can on safari for the Mac. In addition to ads, blockers could be used to prevent tracking scripts from running, another blow to online marketers.
Comments
Wow.. that's really amazing.
I know some ads can be annoying but how are people supposed to support themselves now??
Everyone wants everything for free now. But don't DARE ask them for a teaspoon of sugar.
Poor ad companies "losing" billions of dollars in the same way I'm "losing" billions by not putting spam links into my comments. Heaven forbid.
I know some ads can be annoying but how are people supposed to support themselves now??
Everyone wants everything for free now. But don't DARE ask them for a teaspoon of sugar.
Ads have evolved from being "annoying" to downright in-your-face. I hate it to the nTH degree. I lost track of the number of websites I attempted to visit, only to shut the window down because the ads were so over-the-top cluttering everything.
The current model is broken. Kudos to Apple for giving the finger to advertisers. They should know better. Now, an opportunity exists to create a whole new model that is less invasive and irritating.
What will happen of course is when Apple once-again sets the course, the rest of the community will receive the benefits as well with little or no thanks to Apple for paving the way.
Find another type of job! All this 'free' poip-up crap did not exist years agi, it was the evil Google that really prompted this bombardment of unwanted ads.
Can't wait to read the web version of AI on my iPad without the ads (which, of late, seems to crash Safari on the iPad again and again).
I know some ads can be annoying but how are people supposed to support themselves now??
Everyone wants everything for free now. But don't DARE ask them for a teaspoon of sugar.
The problem for me isn't so much that they're annoying, it's that all the tracking and javascript impact performance enormously, particularly on older hardware.
I didn't realize how much performance was impacted on my machines until I installed Ghostery. For me, it was a night and day difference.
I also, as an experiment, turned off Javascript in settings for mobile Safari, and I saw another big performance boost. Sites that used to load like shit (hello, The Verge, Re/Code, iMore), loaded far better and I saw fewer tab refreshes and crashes.
Eventually I turned JS back on because a lot of things depend on it (like forums), but I will be a day one adopter of Ad blocking when it comes in ios 9.
Basically, I don't feel sorry for them, not even a little. They create a bog of trouble and then whine about people avoiding all the crap created in it.
- Block ads except from sites I frequent (gotta keep AI and others financially possible; I make this "whitelist" generously large, and a couple times a year make sure I add to it)
- Block CERTAIN ads (popups/overs/unders when possible, click-bait like Taboola that pretends not to be ads) on ALL sites
- Block all trackers (including Facebook, and not being logged into Google)
So, a site I visit enough to matter, that doesn't use those worst tactics, gets full revenue from me (and occasionally I have a day where I make a point of actually clicking some ads on my favorite sites). A site I frequent that does use those tactics still gets something from my visits (assuming they have "normal" ads too).
The companies that produce pop-out ads that take over almost the screen with hard to find close buttons are the worst offenders.
Don't get me started on auto-playing video and audio adverts which really annoy me. I think that may also be addressed in part in IOS9 with a kill audio option
To end on a positive note. Any in-context advert of interest to me will often get me to click through. It's all about the quality and relevance.
Typical of advertising morons and their audacity to believe that throwing an ad in my face is a lost sale. In fact the reverse is true I go out of my way to avoid buying products from companies that want my $ by default. When I meet someone who is pitching something and asks me why I won't buy their product I tell them "Because you want me to" I love the look on their face when I tell them that!!
Ads have evolved from being "annoying" to downright in-your-face. I hate it to the nTH degree. I lost track of the number of websites I attempted to visit, only to shut the window down because the ads were so over-the-top cluttering everything.
The current model is broken. Kudos to Apple for giving the finger to advertisers. They should know better. Now, an opportunity exists to create a whole new model that is less invasive and irritating.
What will happen of course is when Apple once-again sets the course, the rest of the community will receive the benefits as well with little or no thanks to Apple for paving the way.
While I agree this is good, how do you figure that Apple is paving the way? They are allowing ad blocking addons to be used. Those are ad blocking addons that non-iOS have been using already.
I agree Apple does pave the way on a lot of stuff.
This is excellent - just the sort of service we expect Apple to provide effectively, and, quite obviously,
a critically important element in the 'subtle' agenda of "going nuclear" on Google's a**.
And I'd really like to see Apple, in the same vein, do more to help block spam effectively in Apple mail.
Not that they haven't started, but really aggressive and "clever" commercial spammers have found ways
to disguise headers in such a way that it can be difficult to create effective rules to block them.
That may not be as true for you sophisticated users, but for those of us without great skills,
more help would be great.
These businesses have done it to themself!!!. With too many ad's, or worse very annoying pop open ad's and new website ad's, and it gets worse and worse. People have had enough in your face ad's. Even worse, unlike ad's in a magazine or newspaper, these ad company's think they have a right to track you where you go from one site to the next. No thanks. All this ad crap slows down your web browsing by quite a bit as ad's and teaching crap is downloaded from a bunch of places at once!!! Making your experience even worse.
It was recently I installed a ad blocker in my pc. I couldn't take it anymore. It's like a virus. I have one on my iPhone now but only works over WiFi. Audi built into my iPhone will be huge. It will be turned on.