More and more users who are sick of ads slowing down their browsing
speed, cluttering up web pages, increasing their data usage and violating their
privacy by constantly tracking them, are installing ad blockers to rid
themselves of this menace once and for all. The number of users with ad-block
on their devices has reportedly surged 64% in the last 3 years accounting for 15-30%
of total web-traffic. Most of this growth is fueled by an uptake in ad-blocking
on mobile devices in the last few years.
Internationally, ad publishers lose ~$50bn in revenue every year
to ad blockers. Not only do ad-blockers prevent users from viewing ads (and
subsequently clicking on them) but another serious concern is that they are
able to prevent publishers from running any analytics on these users resulting
in a skewed data set. On the other hand even if publishers found a way to reach
users with ad-blockers would they really be able to monetize from them given
their dislike towards ads in the first place.
SCROLL
Enter Scroll – a service that partners with over 300
websites (popular ones like Buzzfeed, Business Insider and Vox) to offer ad-free
browsing for a subscription fee of $2.49 per month (this is expected to
increase to $4.99 per month after the first 6 months of launching). The idea
behind this service is that users pay for “a web that’s twice as fast, with no
shadowy trackers, no ads, no pre-rolls.” On the other hand, publishers earn more
than they would by showing ads to these same users. The benefit that Scroll
offers over traditional ad-blockers is 1) smoother integration with mobile
devices and 2) ad-free access to websites that currently detect and overcome
ad-blockers.
Is the option of having an entirely ad-free internet a
possibility in the future? We’ll find out soon enough!
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