Most popular ad-blocking software hits 100m users
Till Faida has announced that AdBlock Plus has reached 100m active users globally, highlighting the growth in popularity of ad-blocking software in recent years. While download rates for the software have slowed in western Europe, the US and UK continue to see growth, as more customers feel online advertising is obtrusive and deceiving. The sheer number of global users points to the need for advertisers to create a strategy to combat the rise of ad-blocking software on both desktops and mobile devices.

AdBlock Plus, the most popular ad blocking software, now boasts over 100m active users globally, another sign of the huge growth of ad blocking adoption over the past few years and another signal to the advertising community that a cohesive strategy to combat this rise is needed.



The milestone was announced at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference in Brooklyn, New York by Till Faida, co-founder and CEO of Eyeo, the company behind the software. The figure represents the total number of active installations, so users who have the software installed on multiple devices may skew the numbers slightly.



In terms of growth, rates are slowing in western European countries like France and Germany, where adoption is already at around 25 per cent for ad blockers, but markets including the US and UK are still seeing relatively speedy growth as more customers signal their dissatisfaction with online advertising.



The figures do not indicate what proportion of these installations are on mobile devices, where uptake is generally lower than desktop and laptop devices, but eMarketer figures for the UK suggest that, of those people who use ad blocking software, around 30 per cent do so on their mobile devices.