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Adblocking Mobile Advertising

Mobile ad blocking is on the rise with nearly 80% either using them (or wanting to)

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By John McCarthy | Opinion Editor

February 1, 2016 | 2 min read

The final quarter of 2015 saw a drastic surge in mobile ad blocking according to new data from GlobalWebIndex.

In the three months leading up to 31 December 2015, 36.7 per cent of mobile users said they have blocked ads on their mobile within the last month, feeding concerns in the industry that a solution is required to curb the trend and serve more web users with ads again.

On desktop computers, between Q4 2014 and Q4 2015, ad block use was up by more than ten per from 27.5 per cent to 38.3 per cent.

The firms data indicates that “it’s younger consumers who are at the forefront of the trend” with over 40 per cent of mobile users aged 16-34 saying they’ve blocked ads during the last month.

Blocking falls among older age groups with the 55-64s sitting at around 20 per cent.

Jason Mander, director of research and insight at GlobalWebIndex said: “A number of factors have combined to cause this rise, from the almost-constant media coverage enjoyed by the subject to the proliferation of free and easily-available tools.

“But the arrival of ad-blocking on mobile has also been encouraging people to adopt this approach across all of their devices. Arguably the most striking aspect of this data is the huge potential for ad-blocking to continue growing.”

He concluded: “Across every single age and gender break, it’s at least 70 per cent who say they’re either blocking ads already or are interested in doing so in the future.”

Making matters worse, Samsung has begun supporting ad blocking plug-ins for its Android enabled smartphone, only encouraging ad block growth further.

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