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Cape Town – Fin24 users have demanded an end to intrusive mobile advertising that is a nuisance and sometimes misleading, in their view.
Fin24 reported that mobile advertising consumes around 20% of data and the Interactive Advertising Bureau SA said that fortunately for publishers, few South Africans knew how to block ads.
READ: Few South African aware of mobile ad blocking - IAB
“I hate these ads - they annoy and always come at the wrong place,” said Fin24 user Joseph.
“I have deleted every ad that appears on my Facebook in the past and after upgrading my phone will block all ads. [There’s] too much false and exaggerated advertising,” added Fin24 user Dorea who has an iPhone.
“There are loads of complaints on the internet; social media of purchases done through believing what is advertised only to find the product comes far short of what was stated in the ad. That besides the annoyance of ads popping up which is of no interest whatsoever.”
Some linked mobile advertising to unsolicited mail.
“I hate ads on my phone and am unlikely to use the company or service offered. Spam? Can we sue for loss of data and associated frustration it causes?” wrote Fin24 user Debbie.
Apple recently included ad blocking into its iPhone operating system to improve user experience on the internet.
READ: Advertising gobbles 20% of your mobile data
Fin24 user Gerda was representative of the majority opinion: “Yes it annoys me. Give me the ad blocker.”
Research by Danish-based Strand Consult found that 200 million have downloaded ad blocking software as a form of “digital self-defence”.
“Moreover mobile ads are not passive. You can’t change the channel or leave to the room to avoid exposure. Digital ads are integrated with advanced ad serving technologies to collect information about the users’ behaviour which is aggregated and offered to advertisers to help them make their ad placing decisions,” Strand Consult said in a research note on mobile advertising.
Publishers are under pressure with falling advertiser revenues and some have resorted to blocking content if an ad blocker is present. Yet others have resorted to asking people to pay for content.
“Ads on my cell phone are a *£@*£$ nuisance! They even intrude in the middle of the night while we are sleeping and wake us up. This is in spite of having programmed a "do not disturb" function on the phone. How do they by pass this?” fumed Fin24 user Nora.
“They should be totally removed. I would rather pay for apps if this means no ads. Have tried a couple of ad block apps but without success, they are still coming through. I have now muted the volume on my media setting and at least do not hear the ads now,” Nora added.
“I want to focus on the material that interests me without these constant distractions. Also, I'm struggling with excessive data consumption and costs,” said Fin24 user Marianne.
WATCH this online video on how ad blocking could affect the publishing industry:
