Ad blockers cost the advertising industry billions

AD BLOCKER The first "Ad Blocking Action Day" took place in Frankfurt on February 11, 2016. The widespread use of anti-advertising software costs the advertising industry almost 22 billion US dollars.

Ad blockers are increasingly becoming a serious problem for the advertising industryIn a global study "The Cost of Ad Blocking"published in summer 2015, Adobe and Pagefair put the loss of advertising revenue caused by the programs at 21.8 billion US dollars.Rapidly increasing useAlmost 200 million people worldwide use adblockers. In Switzerland, adblocker penetration is 15 percent. According to the study, the number of users is around 1.1 million. In comparison, the figure is 25 percent in Germany and 30 percent in Poland. The European leader is Greece with 37%, and the study paints a bleak picture for the future. In 2016, advertising losses could almost double to over 40 billion dollars. The gaming industry is the hardest hit. Here, the failure rate is over 26 percent. This is followed by social networking (19.1 percent) and tech/Internet (17 percent).Mobile as a way out?Adblocking rates on smartphones and tablets are currently much lower at three to four percent. But here, too, the clouds are gathering. "In the next 18 months, mobile adblocking will go from being a non-issue to a serious problem," says Johnny Ryan, Head of Ecosystem at Page Fair, with a view to China, where Maxthon and UC Browser, web browsers with pre-installed adblockers, are already widespread.Radical measuresSome publishers, such as Bild.de, are trying to counteract the problem in a radical way. On Bild.de, users of ad blockers are notified that they can no longer visit the site unless they pay for the content. However, it remains to be seen whether this solution will prove successful for publishers in the long term.Author: Simon Wolanin