Adblocking, which enables users to prevent page elements, mainly advertisements, from being displayed by the web browser, is now a habit of some 198M internet users. This given figure is a 41 percent increase from last year's recorded data.
According to a report published by PageFair and Adobe, the trend will cost publishers an estimated amount of $21.8 billion, and will even rise up to $41 billion by 2016.
For as long as popular mobile platforms begin to display adblocking apps and plug-ins, then it is expected that the number of adblock users will continue to rise in the next few months.
Germany and the Netherlands have, so far, been the most affected by this with the number of adblock users approaching already 40 percent of their internet population. Two reasons are being considered for the prevalence of this practice:
1. Adblock Plus (ABP), the widely- used blocking software, is from Cologne, Germany.
2. It has its cultural factor as Germans oppose online advertising, which is exhibited by its government's anti- Google position.
The habit has also gone up by 30 percent in France, with gaming sites as the worst to be hit with 80 to 90 percent of the views being deprived of ads.
The U.S. and U.K. appear to be less affected with a mere 15 to 17 percent adblocking patronage from its internet population.
But more than the numbers, the battle over the legality of adblocking reflects a major problem in the advertising ecosystem. Seeing this, French publishers GESTE and the French Internet Advertising Bureau followed suit against their German colleagues by suing the creator of AdBlock Plus, Eyeo GmbH, on grounds that their business is being subjected to a major economic threat.
Analysts, however, raise that regardless of the validity, a legal action is a sure miss of the critical point. By using the AdBlock Plus on a wide scale, users are showing their opposition on the growing insistence of digital advertising. Hence, filing a legal case against Eyeo is like treating cancer with Aspirin. Very few seem to realize the fact that a different approach is now required.
