YouTube Steps up Its Fight Against Ad Blockers With Load Delays

YouTube continues to step up its fight against ad blockers, with the platform now confirming that it’s slowing its website load times for users who’re detected as using an ad blocker when visiting the platform.

YouTube has been progressively expanding its pushback against using ad blocking tools, even cutting some users off entirely when an ad blocker is detected. And now, as reported by Android Authority, YouTube’s also implementing load delays, with various users reporting waits of 5 seconds or more, which have now been confirmed by YouTube itself.

YouTube provided AA with this statement:

“To support a various ecosystem of creators globally and permit billions to access their favorite content on YouTube, we’ve launched an effort to induce viewers with ad blockers enabled to permit ads on YouTube or try YouTube Premium for an ad free experience. Users who’ve ad blockers installed may experience suboptimal viewing, whatever the browser they’re using.”

So if YouTube’s detection systems pick up that you just’re using an ad blocker, you’re going to have a much slower, more annoying viewing experience, which, as noted, is an element of YouTube’s expanded effort to stop users cutting off its ads.

YouTube launched a brand new program to combat ad blocker usage in limited testing back in June, but in recent months, more users have reported encountering this recent pop-up notification:

Last month, YouTube confirmed to The Verge that it’s indeed ramping up its anti-ad block push, noting that:

“Ads support a various ecosystem of creators globally and permit billions to access their favorite content on YouTube.”

Essentially, YouTube’s sick of individuals cutting off its core revenue stream, and as such, it’s fighting back, which could significantly negate the worth of ad blocking tools, considering that YouTube’s ads are one of the crucial commonly cited explanation why people activate ad blockers in the primary place.

Will that make you reconsider your use of ad blockers?

The changes, in fact, only impact the net version of the app, and never those accessing YouTube content via the mobile app. But the vast majority of YouTube access comes via visits to youtube.com, not the app itself, so the impact here might be significant, relative to ad blocker usage.

And you can too expect other platforms to follow suit.

If YouTube shows that there’s a strategy to stop people using ad blockers, thus reducing ad performance, you possibly can bet that many other platforms will likely be taking a look at the identical, which could further degrade the worth of ad blockers over time.

In keeping with research by Tinuiti, around 31% of U.S. adult consumers currently use ad blockers, a segment that’s been steadily growing over time. Plainly YouTube, not less than, is not any longer willing to let that stand, which will likely be an annoyance for a lot of who thought they’d found an answer for YouTube’s sometimes intrusive ads.