Apple IOS 9 ad blocker

Since the announcement of the new operating system, rumors have been swirling about whether and how an ad blocker functionality can be set up on consumers' iPhones and what consequences this will have for the advertising industry. Fears even go so far as to say that advertising on mobile devices may no longer be possible in the future. A brief explanation is therefore necessary.

Mark Forster, what exactly will iOS 9 enable?
In addition to an improved keyboard, more flexible search, video overlay, etc., iOS 9 allows users to install content blocking software into the mobile version of Apple's "Safari" browser for the first time. In principle, this can also be used to prevent advertising. However, the iOS upgrade alone does not enable this functionality on any iPhone and iPad. The corresponding modification must first be made and activated manually by the user. Therefore, updating your device to iOS 9 does not block advertising yet. In order to prevent advertising, various steps have to be actively taken.

What exactly do users have to do to block advertising?
In a first step, users have to search for a suitable offer of adblocking software in the AppStore and install it on their device. Afterwards, the downloaded adblocker has to be activated in the settings of the iPhone or iPad. The best-known program from the desktop world is AdBlock Plus, which is now also available for iOS. By itself, iOS 9 does not block advertising.

How does this work?
Contrary to popular belief, adblocking only works in the mobile version of Apple's Safari browser. This means that ad blockers do not have access to Chrome, just as they do not have access to all other browsers. All mobile apps are also not affected by adblocking - such as 20Minuten, Blick or Watson).

What effects are to be expected?
In the short term, no noticeable effects are expected for the mobile advertising market. This is because the potentially blocked traffic share is in the low single-digit percentage range and thus many times lower than the growth in mobile data traffic.
 
Can you elaborate on this?
As a comparison, we can look at adblocker penetration on PCs, where such programs have existed since 2009. Today, six years later, around 198 million PCs worldwide have an adblocker installed. This corresponds to 6 percent of devices connected to the Internet worldwide (2015 Ad-blocking Report PDF). With regard to iOS 9, it should be noted that an adblocker only limits advertising on "Safari", but not on other apps. In concrete terms, this only affects ads that are displayed on a mobile site called up on "Safari". However, the use of mobile apps far exceeds that of mobile sites. In the USA, the usage ratio of app vs. browser is 85 : 15. Safari's share of the mobile and tablet market is currently 41 percent. Consequently, even if all iPhone and iPad users were to update to iOS 9 and download and activate an adblocker now, this would hide a maximum of 6.15 percent of ads. If we now assume that the spread of adblockers will reach 6 percent of all devices within 6 years, as is the case on desktop, the blocked mobile traffic will fall by 0.3 percent of the total iOS advertising inventory. Measured in terms of data volume, however, mobile traffic is expected to increase by 57 percent each year. The potentially blocked inventory of 0.3 - 6.15 percent is therefore negligible for the advertising industry.

Nevertheless, what does the introduction of mobile adblockers actually mean for publishers, advertisers and the more than 6.5 million mobile users in Switzerland?
We are constantly monitoring this development very closely. In our systems, we see such trends very early on and can thus react to any changes. The fact is that mobile traffic is still increasing by double-digit percentages every month. We also analyze this regularly with our publisher partners, who seem nervous. The situation is paradoxical: consumers are apparently not prepared to pay for content. Therefore, this content has to be financed through advertising. If this advertising is now prevented, the monetization for the publishers falls away, which is to the detriment of the quality of the media. This, in turn, cannot be in the interest of consumers. We at Adello do not view the spread of adblockers negatively. After all, those who install an adblocker deliberately do not want to see any advertising. An adblocker allows to reduce the waste of advertising to disinterested people. So if you recognize which user has installed an adblocker on a "Safari" browser, you should not show any advertising to the same user in other channels, if possible. It is therefore a matter of taking consumer behavior into account rather than fighting it. If, contrary to all expectations, mobile adblocking were to become widespread and significantly block out a certain advertising target group, it can be assumed that campaigns would be increasingly targeted in mobile apps. On "Safari," other forms of advertising that cannot be prevented will probably be given preference. After all, advertising always finds a way to the consumer.

Interview: uma