One in five smartphone users uses an ad-blocker on their phone, report says

SpartacusSystem

Level 7
Thread author
Verified
Well-known
Aug 6, 2015
306
More than one in five people routinely block adverts on their phones, new figures say.

At least 419 million people are stopping ads from appearing on their mobile devices, according to a report by PageFair on the use of mobile ad-blockers. That works out to 22 percent of the world's 1.9bn smartphone users, as of March 2016.

Of those adblocker users, the report says more than 400 million people use mobile browsers that block ads by default. A large number of those are in China, where there are 159 million users of mobile ad-zapping browsers, and India, where there are 122 million people using browsers that ban ads.

The phenomenon is less pronounced in Europe and North America, where there were just 14 million monthly active users of ad-busting mobile browsers. But mobile adverts are still under threat: UK mobile network Three is the first European carrier to block ads at a network level.

The reports author PageFair markets tools to combat ad-blockers. As such, it's in the company's interest to highlight the extent of the threat to publishers like this website you're reading right now. As ad-blockers threaten advertising revenue, the publishing industry is increasingly considering paywalls and subscriptions. Hey, don't blame us, we've got to keep the lights on somehow.

Browsers with ad-blocking options include Opera and Brave.
 
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Evjl's Rain

Level 47
Verified
Honorary Member
Top Poster
Content Creator
Malware Hunter
Apr 18, 2016
3,684
adaway on rooted tablet with some customs lines + adguard free for non-rooted phone
Browser with adblocker buit-in = Naked browser free and pro (can read easylist and hosts file formats)
 
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Ink

Administrator
Verified
Staff Member
Well-known
Jan 8, 2011
22,361
I did use Adblock Browser for a time, but moved back to Chrome. Ads are a problem if you use many free Apps, Games, or browse ad-infested sites.

In my case, I rarely see that many, except in a few apps.
 
A

Alkajak

Android. I only use Chrome, I have the native browser hidden. AdAway on rooted phone, it is a great module and system-wide. Used AdGuard free for a while before rooting again only recently. It is not system-wide, quite bulky and the persistent notification was intrusive. If I return back to un-rooted, Google Safe Browsing is good enough alone.
 
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jamescv7

Level 85
Verified
Honorary Member
Mar 15, 2011
13,070
Honestly the vectors of advertisement from Mobile and Desktop are likely different.

Usually in desktop, aggressive popups followed by possible malicious scripts that will run through background; meanwhile in mobile just annoying rogue products that you can dismiss the message anyway.
 
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