Ad Blockers Beware: YouTube is Here to Stay – Here’s Why!
Millions, actually billions, use YouTube around the world, and the company has long allowed people to use ad blockers to avoid seeing ads before and between videos.
But recently, the platform decided to give a strict lease on the use of ad blockers, asking people to see ads if they want to use YouTube for free or if they can subscribe to YouTube Premium.
This suppression of YouTube ads has directly affected the developers who work in the ad blocker business, and people using these tools have started removing these apps/extensions because they see no point in keeping them anymore. Reports coming out this week suggest that YouTube’s decision to limit ad-free viewing has decimated these ad blockers, with thousands of users uninstalling the app from their browser or mobile device.
People are clearly confused by YouTube’s strategy of blocking free viewing with ad blockers, but they are clearly looking for options to continue watching videos on the platform without having to pay for their Premium plans.
These ad blocking companies have resorted to surveying users who uninstall their apps/extensions, and most people cite YouTube’s recent rule changes as the reason. Daily uninstalls of ad blockers like AdGuard have reportedly increased from 6,000 to 11,000 per day, with growth expected to increase further as the changes take effect worldwide.
Interestingly, the biggest drop has been seen in users watching YouTube videos on Chrome, another Google product like YouTube.
Many people have even resorted to watching videos on other browsers such as Microsoft Edge, which clearly has no problem letting ad blockers do their job. We’re not sure these loopholes will last long, but these efforts show that people are starting to get desperate to avoid paying for YouTube, but don’t want to see ads that can’t be skipped.
It remains to be seen where YouTube’s dramatic change to its ad blocker rules will go in the coming months and how users will react to these changes.
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