Flatlining of Adblock user numbers masks mobile shift
Adblock Plus has moved to scotch suggestions that the number of internet users employing adblocking software had plateaued by pointing out that mobile usage of the software continues to power ahead.
The retort followed a statement from the International Advertising Bureau asserting that adblock usage was stagnating with 2017 UK usage hovering at 22%, a similar figure to that reached the year before.
Ben Williams, head of operations and communications at Adblock Plus, commented: “If there’s been a stagnation in the adblock users, we’ve not seen this. If you look at adblocking on a per-country basis, we’ve long predicted that numbers would level around the 20-30% mark.”
Growth was particularly pronounced in the APAC region where growth in mobile adblocking hit 40%, as Williams explained: “The high proportion of APAC adblockers suggests that the mobile platform is still raw and requires time to innovate. For both publishers and advertisers alike it represents two considerations, one being to stop the number of intrusive ads, and the second to better understand and adjust to the hardware restraints that weren’t previously experienced on desktops.”
The most current PageFair report indicates that 615 million devices are now actively blocking ads, with 62% of these arising from the mobile sphere – the first-time desktop devices have been overtaken on this metric.