Numerous news sites have declared war on ad-blocking software this year – the likes of Forbes, New York Times, and Wired have already instituted a policy of withholding content to visitors using ad-blockers – and now Facebook has become the first social media site to follow suit. While Facebook will not block content to ad-block users, like the aforementioned news sites, it will present ads as integrated HTML content on its desktop site, making it indistinguishable from normal posts.
“We are making it harder for ad blockers to be effective on Facebook for desktop,” Andrew “Boz” Bosworth, Facebook’s Vice President of Ads and Business Platform, told USA Today.
As a compromise, Facebook allows users to opt-out of certain ad targeting categories and even block ads from particular companies, accessible through Ad Preferences on the settings page.
Ad-blocking software is becoming increasingly popular, especially on home PCs, and its use is thought to have lost Google $6.6 Billion in potential advertising revenue. Facebook generates nearly 100% of its revenue from advertising – during the second quarter of 2016, the company made $6.44 billion from ads – and expressed its concern over ad-blocking in a quarterly filing in January.
“Revenue generated from the display of ads on personal computers has been impacted by these technologies from time to time,” the filing reads. “As a result, these technologies have had an adverse effect on our financial results and, if such technologies continue to proliferate, in particular with respect to mobile platforms, our future financial results may be harmed.”
