Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Axel Springer Goes After iOS 9 Ad Blockers In New Legal Battlle (techcrunch.com)

Posted by samzenpus on from the watch-this-or-else dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Germany's Axel Springer, owner of newspapers like Bild and Die Welt, is pursuing legal action against the developers of Blockr, an ad blocker for iOS 9. Techcrunch reports: "In October, Axel Springer forced visitors to Bild to turn off their ad blockers or pay a monthly fee to continue using the site. Earlier this month, the publisher reported the success of this measure, saying that the proportion of readers using ad blockers dropped from 23% to the single digits when faced with the choice to turn off the software or pay. 'The results are beyond our expectations,' said Springer chief exec Mathias Döpfner at the time. 'Over two-thirds of the users concerned switched off their adblocker.' He also noted that the Bild.de website received an additional 3 million visits from users who could now see the ads in the first two weeks of the experiment going live."

5 of 223 comments (clear)

  1. Don't evolve your business model by OrangeTide · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Litigate instead!

    --
    “Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
    1. Re:Don't evolve your business model by TWX · · Score: 3, Insightful

      And users that are tired of browser hijacks and computer security intrusions will continue to block "ads" forever.

      Fool me once, shame on you.

      --
      Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
    2. Re:Don't evolve your business model by Mashiki · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Well, the lame excuse about intrusive ads does not apply here, according to TFS. Either pay a subscription fee and eliminate ads or view ads. I guess most freeloaders don't want to pay for the subscription or view ads.

      Sure it does. A lot of people wouldn't mind the ads if they're not going to hijack their machine and would turn off adblocking software. But the content that said sites offer, do not promote a persons desire to pay for it. Especially since large numbers of news services simply use wire content to fill out their pages. That site in question doesn't offer any unique content that people can't find elsewhere.

      The business model is broken, because companies don't want to take responsibility for the ads. And users are refusing ads, because they're the most common source of machine hijacking.

      --
      Om, nomnomnom...
  2. Target audience by mattwarden · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Congrats. You now have a group of people seeing your ads that wanted to not see them so bad they bought an app. I'm sure this business model will work out for you in the long run.

  3. Ads are malware vectors, period by TheDarkMaster · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Nowadays blocking advertising is required to prevent malware infections.

    --
    Religion: The greatest weapon of mass destruction of all time