Adblock Plus is making a surprising leap into ad tech

[Batu69]

Adblock Plus, the popular ad blocking tool owned by German company Eyeo, is making a surprising entry into the world of ad tech.

On Tuesday, the company announced it is launching a supply-side platform (SSP) that will allow publishers to insert what it deems "acceptable ads," which won't be blocked by Adblock Plus (unless users apply the strictest settings) on their sites.

 

Till Faida, Eyeo CEO

 

Eyeo has partnered with under-the-radar UK-based ad tech startup ComboTag to launch what it is calling the "Acceptable Ads Platform," which is set to launch at some point this fall.

 

The platform will act as a marketplace of pre-approved ads that publishers can drag and drop into place on their websites in positions deemed appropriate by Adblock Plus' pre-existing acceptable ads initiative — such as banners at the top or placements on the right-side of the page.

 

Publishers wanting to use the Acceptable Ads Platform need to integrate a tag onto their page to start using it. Meanwhile, the platform also serves as a kind of ad exchange, allowing demand-side platforms (DSPs) to plug in to let advertisers purchase whitelisted ad spots on participating publishers' websites.

 

In a press release, Eyeo CEO and Adblock Plus cofounder Till Faida, says: "There are two ecosystems of online consumers out there right now: the one composed of people who block intrusive ads and the other where people do not. The Acceptable Ads Platform lets publishers reach the former group without changing anything about how they’re reaching the latter. We’ve been waiting years for the ad tech industry to do something consumer-friendly like this, so finally we got tired of waiting and decided to just do it ourselves."

 

The ad tech community is likely to look on the Acceptable Ads Platform launch with a degree of cynicism.

Adblock Plus makes money by charging large companies — including Google, Amazon, Criteo, and Taboola — a fee to get their ads whitelisted. The cost is 30% of the additional revenue created by having those ads unblocked. Only around 10% of the companies taking part in the Acceptable Ads initiative are required to pay.

 

Critics — many of those advertising executives — have compared this model to everything from "blackmail" to "extortion" to being like a "Mafia-like advertising network." And whether or not they agree with the way Adblock Plus generates its revenue, the steady increase in ad blocker usage is a direct threat to the ad-funded online media business model.

 

Over the past year, Adblock Plus has attempted to make amends with the advertising and publishing community by inviting them to participate in Acceptable Ads initiative. Adblock Plus plans to form a non-profit committee — made up of stakeholders ranging from ad tech companies, publishers, journalists, academics, and consumer champions — that will act as an independent review board for the program.

 

Progress on that front so far has been somewhat slow. Adblock Plus has not provided an update since its London "Camp David" peace talks meeting in February. However, the company is exhibiting at the huge digital marketing trade expo Dmexco in Cologne, Germany this week, so it is likely to be meeting with some stakeholders there.

 

The Acceptable Ads Platform isn't Adblock Plus' first meander away from simply providing ad blocking tools. In May, the company announced it was partnering with donation startup Flattr, which was created by the founder of The Pirate Bay, to launch a service that lets users pay the online publishers and content creators they visit the most. The product is not currently available outside of a closed beta.

 

Adblock Plus' pivot into ad tech comes two months after Israel-based ad blocking company Shine announced its plans to launch an ad verification platform, which it plans to roll out in October.

 

Article source

[edwardecl]

Nothing like an extortion racket,  use uBlock Origin instead.

[steven36]

No afblockers  work 100%  noway  if you dont use scripts and when sites break the scripts  they stop working too tell and if they fix them  .They broke anti adblock script  on one of the sites i use last night and im haveing to use a script blocker  and popup blocker just to block the ads it detects it  if i turn adblock on the site want function  . Google  made billions  off ads and the masses chose there browser over all the others so i would expect  no less  than the masses  to use the Mafia  of Adblockers  If it could block all ads out of the box if you opted out of acceptable ads then there would be a reason to use it but it cant.

 

[DKT27]

[Holmes]

I dont like the sound of this Luckily I use a hosts file to what adblock plus decides is acceptable ad's is going to get blocked by my hosts file.

[knowledge-Spammer]

acceptable ads 

think not  i hate ads

 

[davmil]

7 hours ago, edwardecl said:

Nothing like an extortion racket,  use uBlock Origin instead.

Respectively disagree.  Almost exactly like extortion - "pay us, or we whack your revenue source."  And I use it and like ABP

[OrbingStorm]

I would be removing it immediately as life is too short to put up with this nonsense.There are plenty of alternatives as mentioned.

[Petrovic]

 

Ba dum tss. The most famous ad blocker in the world is now running its own ad network.

For those who are now puzzled (just like us), let us tell you more.

What happened

Acceptable Ads program has already been there for a while. And basically even then it was quite controversial. The initiative was embodied in certain criteria of "acceptability" of ads. If any advertising complies with them, it can be added to a special whitelist of "acceptable ads". The owner of a website could appeal to Adblock Plus with the request for the inclusion to the whitelist. Small sites got there for free, large companies should have paid a fee.

And recently Adblock Plus has launched an Acceptable Ads Platform, dramatically changing the approach itself. Now it is a real advertising network designed to show "acceptable" ads.

How it works

Anyone can use the code of the Acceptable Ads advertising network on his or her website. In this case, Adblock Plus users will see "acceptable" ads and other users will continue to see "unacceptable" ones.

 

Eyeo believes that this is an attempt to please both users and website owners. Sites will be able to continue to earn on advertising, users will get less annoying ads.

What we think

We believe that this new initiative is a big mistake, which may cause serious consequences for the entire online advertising market.

 

First, we do not think that one company can combine two such different roles. Ad blockers are designed to protect the rights of users and "balance" the development of ad technologies. Turning Eyeo into an ad company is a direct conflict of interest.

 

Second, though all its contradictions, the original idea of "acceptable ads" initiative had a positive side. To ensure its way into the whitelist, all ads should have satisfied a set of criteria of "acceptability". Without any separation for users. Thus, Eyeo could have claimed that they change the whole advertising market and try to connect users more with the industry. Now, this argument does not work anymore.

 

Third, Adblock Plus is a leader in the field of ad-blocking, no matter what. And such actions of theirs cast a shadow on all of us.

 

And finally. Perhaps with this novelty Eyeo has opened the Pandora's box. Just think about it, who will prevent Google from blocking ads of competitors in their browser because of, well, "unacceptability"? Who can forbid Apple to make criteria of "acceptability" for iOS-advertising, one of which will be a mandatory half-eaten apple in the logo? Let's leave this question unanswered.

https://blog.adguard.com/en/adblock-plus-sells-ads/