Facebook vs AdBlock Plus
This story pops up every week or so lately and I find it amusing.
On the surface the fight looks like a David vs Goliath or a Robin Hood fighting for the goodness of the people. Not so…
On one hand you have Facebook. The billionaire giant (2 billion in PROFIT per quarter. Yes billion) forcing ads upon their users to line the coffers with more dollar bills.
On the other you have AdBlock Plus, which is a free program. They claim they are trying to block the ads and limit increasing the Facebook giant’s wallet via ad revenue, while freeing the Facebook user of those annoying ads they see while trying to watch their friend’s cat videos.
What I’ve been wondering was why. Why was this free adblocker fighting Facebook?
Publicity – sure, makes sense, now I know who they are. Because they hate the ‘man’ and his ads? Sure – makes sense, and I guess you have to have a hobby or something to do with your free time right? Fame and Fortune? On the surface it doesn’t look like it. However, when dig deeper, you find out that AdBlocker Plus has launched its own ad exchange called the Acceptable Ads Platform, which essentially lets websites serve ‘privacy-safe’ ads that AdBlocker Plus won’t block from appearing on the 90 million or so users that have their software installed – for a 6% cut.
Ah, there it is! Knew there was profit to be made somewhere.
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