A recent tweak in Apple’s iOS9 software has advertising executives around the world shaking in their boots. Three words: mobile ad blocking.
Almost 200 million people worldwide currently use ad blocking software, according to a recent study conducted by PageFair and Adobe. This same study estimates that ad blocking will cost advertisers almost $22 billion during 2015. This was conducted before Apple’s software change, so it only takes into account desktop ad blocking, but the numbers are still staggering.
The real reason why the media industry is terrified of mobile ad blocking is because we’ve been banking on the rapid rise of mobile to be our saving grace.