YouTube ad-blocker crackdown backfires
YouTube’s global crackdown on ad-blocker apps on its platform appears to have ignited a scramble by internet users – for ways to keep watching content free of annoying commercial breaks.
“In an effort to support its ad-driven revenue, YouTube recently started a ‘global crackdown’ on ad-blocker apps and extensions on the platform, leaving users scrambling for new ways to watch videos uninterrupted,” said internet watchdog All About Cookies.
“This cat-and-mouse game between the streaming giant and its users is nothing new,” it added. “But this recent crackdown has compelled many people to think about how much they actually hate ads.”
This has apparently led many to conclude that, though they might despise said commercial breaks, it still isn’t worth coughing up $13.99 per month for an ad-free YouTube Premium subscription.
As such, All About Cookies found that in the month following the beginning of the crackdown in October web traffic to YouTube ad-blocker content surged by 336% – a more than fourfold increase.
What’s more, YouTube’s threatening popups warning users not to use ad-blockers at risk of expulsion from the platform don’t appear to be rattling many of them – All About Cookies found barely more than one in ten said they were “less likely to use an ad blocker following the crackdown.”
“If one thing is clear, it’s that users really hate advertisements,” said All About Cookies. “Though YouTube’s intention was to either get viewers to watch ads or pay for the privilege of avoiding them, the ad-blocker crackdown has drawn a considerable number of people to find innovative alternatives.”
These include switching to extensions that significantly speed up ads in an effort to get through them more quickly, and ad-blocking extensions and software that can circumvent YouTube’s restrictions.
Moreover, just under three in ten platform users polled by All About Cookies said they had already experimented with ad-blockers – that equates to some 750 million out of a global total of 2.7 billion active monthly YouTube visitors.
In fact, YouTube’s efforts to take a more draconian stance over the issue may well have backfired.
“If nothing else, the data suggests YouTube’s crackdown has rubbed some users the wrong way,” said All About Cookies, citing 22% of respondents who said “the crackdown has made them more likely to want to use an ad blocker.”
It added: “That’s double the number of users who said the ban deters them from trying to block ads.”
And as for paying for the ad-free subscription, dream on YouTube: most people polled by All About Cookies said they wouldn’t pay a penny for such a service, with one in four saying they would pay $5 a month tops and just over one in ten saying they’d go to twice that ceiling.
All About Cookies reached its conclusions after surveying a thousand YouTube users in the US.