"Google and Microsoft pay Adblock Plus developer for whitelisting advertisements"

Microsoft and Google have paid the German developer of the popular Chrome and Firefox extension AdBlock Plus to whitelist their advertisements, according to the Financial Times. Companies can pay to show their advertisements to users running the AdBlock Plus extension.

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The FT doesn't mention how much Google and Microsoft paid to show their advertisements to the about 50 million active users of the browser extension. A smaller company than Google and Microsoft admits to have paid and stated it had to pay 30% of its profits of the advertisements in order to be whitelisted.

The browser extension decreases the reach of advertisements because the software blocks them for its users. This means there is a smaller audience which makes the advertisements to advertisers less valuable. The extension is free, but AdBlock Plus developer Eyeo earns money because companies pay them to be whitelisted. Eyeco states it only shows "acceptable" advertisements.

Despite that Eyeo gets payments from companies its whitelists, it also receives complaints from publishers that want to be compensated for ad revenues they haven't received due usage of the ad blocker. Many sites can continue to exist thanks to advertising revenues.

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An alternative that doesn't use a whitelist is called Adblock Edge, which is a fork of Adblock Plus.

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