{"id":31997,"date":"2023-10-20T14:26:37","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T14:26:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/ad-industry-may-gripe-about-adblockers-but-they-broke-the-contract-not-us-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T14:26:37","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T14:26:37","slug":"ad-industry-may-gripe-about-adblockers-but-they-broke-the-contract-not-us-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/ad-industry-may-gripe-about-adblockers-but-they-broke-the-contract-not-us-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"Ad industry may gripe about adblockers, but they broke the contract \u2013 not us – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/em><\/span>The latest version of Apple\u2019s operating system for phones and tablets, iOS9, allows the installation of adblocking software<\/a> that removes advertising, analytics and tracking within Apple\u2019s Safari browser. While Apple\u2019s smartphone market share is only around 14% worldwide<\/a>, this has prompted another outpouring from the mobile and web advertising industry on the effects of adblockers, and discussion as to whether a \u201cfree\u201d web can exist without adverts.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s not a straightforward question: advertising executives and publishers complain that ads fund \u201cfree\u201d content and adblockers break this contract. Defenders of adblocking point out that the techniques used to serve ads are underhand and that the ads themselves are intrusive. Who is right?<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n There are good reasons for using adblockers. People are usually prompted to do so by online advertising techniques that they find intrusive. These include pop-ups, pop-unders, blinking ads, being forced to watch videos before getting to the content, and ads that contravene the Acceptable Ads Manifesto<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Adverts and trackers can be loaded from multiple third-party websites, inserted into the web page by advertising networks rather than by the site\u2019s publishers. While this saves publishers the hassle of finding advertisers and negotiating rates, it means they often have little say over what ads appear, which can lead to ads that are irrelevant, dubious, even offensive. The additional load on the browser from connecting to multiple sites at once also drains battery and bandwidth and slows down the page load \u2013 all for something we don\u2019t want and which scours our devices to collect information about us for further use.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n The UK\u2019s Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) believe that 15% of British adults use adblockers<\/a>. The IAB study found that people blocked adverts because they were intrusive (73%), ugly or annoying (55%), slowed down web browsers (54%), were irrelevant (46%), or over privacy concerns (31%). What this suggests is that users don\u2019t reject advertising per se<\/em>, but intrusive advertising specifically.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n The advertising industry argues that adblockers undermine the revenue model for publishers that relies upon behaviourally targeted advertising. They claim adblockers stifle start-ups that are dependent on advertising as a means of generating revenue. The theory goes that without advertising revenue all that\u2019s left is subscription services, something which generally only large corporations are good at building.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n While there is some truth to this, the argument assumes that digital start-ups (whether this be an app, a new social media service, or a news website) have access to a large user base from which to generate ad revenue. But of course this isn\u2019t the case when firms are only just getting going. Start-ups rely on investment to grow and be self-sustaining: only then can advertising assist.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n It is reasonable to argue that content has to be paid for. We might try to ignore the adverts that subsidise printed newspapers and magazines, but we cannot remove them. However, in respect of mobile devices \u2013 which have now become the primary means through which the world gets online<\/a> \u2013 we must also consider the data plan that we pay for as part of our mobile phone contract. The firm behind one mobile adblocker, Shine, estimates that depending on where we live, ads can use up 10-50% of a user\u2019s data allowance<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\nWhy we use adblockers<\/h2>\n
Advertising, ethics and the web<\/h2>\n