TORONTO, Feb. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Blockthrough, the market leader in adblock revenue recovery, today announced findings from its new 2020 PageFair Adblock Report.
In the first edition of the report since Blockthrough's acquisition of PageFair just over a year ago, the data show that the battleground of the adblock wars has shifted from desktop to mobile. According to the report, over 763M global devices were blocking ads at the end of 2019, with a large portion utilizing mobile browsers that block ads by default. This has resulted in more than twice as many people blocking ads on mobile as on desktop, driven largely by markets where Internet adoption has been a mobile-first phenomenon.
The report further illustrates significant new trends in consumer adoption of adblocking around the world, including new empirical data and findings for 2017, 2018, and 2019. Key findings and trends identified in the report include:
- Globally, over 763M devices were blocking ads by the end of 2019:
- 527M people were blocking ads on mobile
- 236M people were blocking ads on desktop
- Mobile adblock adoption has grown by 64% since December 2016
- 69% of global adblocking is on mobile
- 49% of top US Comscore publishers studied are leveraging the now-independent Acceptable Ads standard (which many top adblocking extensions/browsers allow) to monetize adblock users who have opted in
- The majority of these work with a third-party provider who supports Acceptable Ads rather than directly with participating adblockers
- 4 of the top 5 publishers in the US use Acceptable Ads to monetize their adblocking audiences, including Google (Search), Amazon and Microsoft
- The surge in mobile adblocking is driven largely by the continued success of UC Browser in China and India, and has been accelerated by Opera Mini enabling adblocking by default.
- While Google Chrome has captured over half of the global mobile market share in less than a decade and is attempting to deter adblocking, its competitors are differentiating themselves by offering adblocking as a built-in feature.
"This year's PageFair Adblock Report showcases just how much adblocking has matured. Although desktop adblocking has begun to slowly decline from its peak, mobile adoption is growing rapidly. Overall adblock rates remain at 15-35% of traffic in many key markets, including North America, most of Europe, and China," said Marty Kratky-Katz, Co-Founder & CEO at Blockthrough. "This year's report also casts light on how radically the adblock monetization category has transformed over the last five years. It is the first report to feature a comprehensive breakdown of what strategies top publishers are using to mitigate the revenue loss that arose from adblocking, as well as the technology providers publishers have chosen to work with to resolve this complex issue."
Google Chrome vs. Adblocking
Virtually all mobile web browsers except Google Chrome now support adblocking. A majority of the world's adblocking takes place on UC Browser, with over 400M MAUs at the end of 2019. While Chrome is the most popular and fastest-growing web browser, largely due to the global success of Android, Chrome's growth is almost matched by the combined market share of competing browsers that either perform adblocking by default, or support opt-in adblocking as a feature.
The report also highlights the extensive actions taken by Google to stifle adblocking on Chrome. However, in doing so, Google has opened the door for adblock-enabled browsers to successfully compete and seize market share on mobile.
Publisher Strategies
The report reviews the adblock monetization strategies employed by the 100 top US publishers impacted by adblocking and finds that 56% are taking some kind of action to mitigate the revenue impact of adblocking. Of those, a strong majority do so via the Acceptable Ads ecosystem, either by working with participating adblockers directly, or more commonly, by working with a third-party provider like Blockthrough.
After several years of experimenting with messaging solutions and attempting to circumvent adblocking technologies, the top ad-funded publishers in America have embraced Acceptable Ads as the most reliable and sustainable method for monetizing adblocking users.
To download the report in its entirety, please click here.
About Blockthrough
Founded in 2015, Toronto-based Blockthrough is the market leader in adblock revenue recovery. Blockthrough helps publishers recover revenue lost to adblocking by delivering respectful, unintrusive ad experiences that leverage the publisher's existing programmatic and direct demand. With a transparent, reliable platform that boasts >99.9% uptime, Blockthrough offers the most effective adblock revenue recovery solution in the market. For more information, visit Blockthrough on LinkedIn or at http://www.blockthrough.com.
SOURCE Blockthrough
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