Report: Usage of mobile ad blockers jumped 90 percent last year to 419 million

Dr. Johnny Ryan, PageFair’s head of ecosystem, told Digiday that the report is a “wake up call” for any one that advertise on desktop and on mobile.

“The blocked web is growing, and marketers need to start thinking about how to reach consumers on the blocked web in a sustainable and respectful way,” he said.

Ad blockers are installed at much higher rates in in emerging countries, such as China, Indonesia and India to the tune of 319 million mobile users combined. In the U.S., Great Britain, France and Germany that number is just 7.4 million. The reason why ad blocking is so much more rampant in those developing markets is because “mobile data infrastructure is less developed and therefore slow and/or expensive relative to income,” the report said.

There are 408 million people using ad blockers that come automatically baked into their browsers, with AdBlock Plus’ browser, Brave and Alibaba-owned UC Browser, are consumers’ top three choices.

Facebook isn’t exempt, either. PageFair warned publishers and brands buying sponsored posts are “no longer immune” because third-party apps. “If history repeats itself then these apps will compete for marketshare on their ability to simplify the user experience by aggregating social feeds and culling in-feed advertising,” it said.