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Most of us would have Adblockers installed on our desktops/ mobiles. Most of the adblockers are free extensions though. But ad blockers are running businesses too. Ever wondered how do AdBlockers make money? Their business models aren't too far off from the very ones that publishers and advertisers use to make money on the web.
⚫Revenue Source 1: Ads
You will be surprised to know that AdBlockers make money through the very ads they are intended to block. Adblock Plus, the most popular ad blocker doesn’t block all ads, but rather operates what it calls an “acceptable ads” program, where ads that meet its criteria for things like placement, size, and distinction, are “whitelisted”—that is, if the company displaying the ads is willing to split the revenue gained by whitelisting with Adblock Plus. Companies can apply to have their sites whitelisted, but Adblock Plus has also reached out to some to solicit their business. Other ad blockers, such as mobile app Crystal, take a similar whitelisting approach. Google, Microsoft, and Amazon are paying Adblock Plus huge fees to get their ads unblocked.
⚫Revenue Source 2: Data
We all have heard the quote of this decade – Data is the new oil. Ghostery, another popular ad blocker, makes money by collecting anonymized data, repackages that data and resells it to publishers, websites, and other companies it says can use the information to help improve the speed, privacy, and performance of their sites.
⚫Revenue Source 3: Fremium
Mobile ad-blockers such as Disconnect and 1Blocker operate under a “freemium” model, which allows you to download the service, but then charges for certain options like being able to block more than one irritant at a time.
⚫Revenue Source 4: Donations & Non Profits
AdBlock started with a “Donate via Paypal” button when it launched. It still makes a lot of revenue from recurring donations from a fraction of its 65M users. Privacy Badger, for example, is a nonprofit blocker operated by the Electronic Frontier Foundation that detects and blocks what it calls “non-consensual tracking," or ads and trackers that follow you around from site to site. The EFF accepts donations (and coding help), but the site itself operates as a nonprofit.
Sources: https://www.wired.com/2016/03/heres-how-that-adblocker-youre-using-makes-money/