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3 Feb, 2017

PageFair Reports 615 Million Devices around the World Block Ads

DUBLIN, 31 January 2017, (Business Wire) – A new PageFair report estimates that 615 million devices are now blocking ads. This represents year-over-year global growth of 30%. Mobile adblock usage grew by 108 million, reaching a total of 380 million active devices. Despite ever smaller numbers of people using desktop and laptop computers, adblock usage on these platforms grew by 34 million to reach 236 million active devices.

“The state of the blocked web” introduces new empirical global, regional, and national data on adblock usage and is the first unified data available for both mobile and desktop adblock usage. It reveals that the “blocked web”—the part of the web where users block ads—has grown to 11% of the global online population.

“The continued growth of the blocked web is a serious challenge to the digital media industry, but it is also a singular opportunity to start over, avoid the mistakes of the past, and serve ads that don’t annoy users,” said PageFair CEO Sean Blanchfield.

The report also introduces insights about the demographics and motivations of adblock users, drawn from a survey of over 1,000 adblock users in the United States.

Adblock usage has spread from its “early adopter” base of young males to a broader demographic that includes men and women of all ages. Concern over viruses and malware was the top reason cited for using adblock software.

The report also examines reactions to publisher adblock walls. 74% of adblock users report leaving websites when blocked from accessing content. 77% of adblock users were willing to view advertising. These users preferred static banner ads and skippable video ads, but disliked non-skippable video ads.

Blanchfield commented, “Serving tamper-proof and non-interruptive ads is preferable to turning users away from websites. We are heartened to see hundreds of websites follow Facebook’s lead by first listening to users and fixing problems before serving ads.”

PageFair is the global authority on adblock and the industry leader in publisher adblock solutions. Its free adblock analytics tool is used by thousands of publishers, representing over 60 billion page views per month. Its tamper-proof ad serving technology is used by premium publishers around the world to serve ads on the blocked web that address user concerns about security, user experience, and privacy.