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Sophie Curtis reports at the Telegraph that an ad-free internet would cost each user about £140 ($230) a year – a sum that the vast majority of UK web users say they would never pay. Ebuzzing calculated the average ‘value’ of each web user by dividing the amount of money spent on digital advertising in the UK in 2013 (£6.4 billion) by the number of UK web users (45 million).
However in a survey of more than 1,400 UK consumers, 98 per cent said they would not be willing to pay this amount to browse the internet without advertisements and although most consumers regard ads as a necessary trade-off to keep the internet free, they will go to great lengths to avoid advertising they do not wish to see.
"It’s clear the ad industry has a major role to play in keeping web content free, but we have to respond to what consumers are telling us," says Jeremy Arditi. "We need to get better at engaging, not better at interrupting. That means introducing new formats which consumers find less invasive, more creative ads that are better placed, and giving consumers a degree of choice and control."
The study also looked specifically at the mobile app sector and found that 77 per cent of consumers never upgrade to paid for versions of free mobile apps. "Publishers of mobile apps will remain heavily reliant on in-app advertising to fund their content creation," says Arditi. "That means the same rules apply – they must give consumers ads that offer choice, relevance, entertainment and brevity."
(Score: 3, Interesting) by velex on Saturday August 23 2014, @05:04PM
An ad-free internet? And I'm supposed to pay upwards of $200 per year for this? Don't make me give up my Russian Caravan tea! (Local tea shop---it's very good. Nice deep, acidic flavor that's a good answer to the ponciness of Earl Grey. A warrior's drink!)
Let the internet(s) have ads. These humans love being goaded on by one weird old trick. These humans love it when they constantly see techniques that would enhance their sexual appeal. How do I know? None of them implement serious measures to prevent their devices from presenting those things.
So let the internet keep having ads. Adblock and Ghostery will keep me happy. The rest of the humans can continue to be tortured by popovers, popunders, popwhatsits, popwherevers, and all sorts of other popping things.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 23 2014, @09:50PM
As long as you're taken care of, fuck everybody else, right? Its people like you that are the problem. The people who produce malware, viruses, and invasive ads see the world exactly the same: fuck everybody, we're going to make sure we get ours. Sociopathy is not something to be proud of, asshole.
(Score: 1) by GWRedDragon on Sunday August 24 2014, @07:00PM
The problem is that many of them don't even realize there is another way, and among those who do, there are plenty who don't have the knowledge to install ad blocking.
What is a 4-click process for you or me might be a 4 hour battle for grandma. That un-knowledgeable person is, of course, also the prime target for scammy ads.
[Insert witty message here]