Daily Archives: January 7, 2016

The ad-blocking quandary

Posted on by

Interesting Forbes column by Lewis DVorkin:

It was my first day of class as a first-time Skype instructor, so I got right to it: “How many of you pay for content?” I asked a dozen or so University of Iowa journalism students as the fall semester got under way at my alma mater. Two, maybe three, gently raised an arm. Then came my follow-up question: “How many of you use ad blockers?” Nearly everyone put a hand straight up, proudly admitting to installing software that snuffs out display ads from their daily Web browsing experience. “That’s wonderful,” I said. “You don’t want to pay for content and you don’t want to see the ads that fund the content you don’t want to pay for. You might want to consider another profession.”

He goes on to describe how Forbes tackled the problem.

Since Dec. 17, 2015, a small percentage of those with ad blockers received this message:

Thanks for coming to Forbes. Please turn off your ad blocker in order to continue. To thank you for doing so, we’re happy to present you with an ad-light experience.

The remainder of visitors using ad blockers became the control group. They didn’t receive a message and continued to have full access to the site.

And the results?

1) From Dec. 17 to Jan. 3, 2.1 million visitors using ad blockers were asked turn them off in exchange for an ad-light experience.

2) 903,000, or 42.4%, of those visitors turned off the blockers and received a thank you message.

3) We monetized 15 million ad impressions that would otherwise have been blocked.

As important, the ad-light experience has focused our attention on faster delivery of our digital screens to consumers.

Interesting. And resourceful.

How big is the ‘sharing’ economy?

Posted on by

A poll by Time says 44 percent of U.S. adults who are Internet users have participated in it, and 22 percent have offered goods or services.

Details:

  • 22 percent of U.S. adults have participated in ride-sharing (or ride-booking), with 10 percent driving for Uber, Lyft or Sidecar (which is getting out of the business).
  • 19 percent have been involved with services such as Airbnb, with 10 percent opening up their homes to host strangers.
  • 17 percent have participated in the service economy, using platforms such as TaskRabbit, and 11 percent have provided services.
  • 14 percent have participated in the car-sharing economy, using Zipcar and similar services.
  • 11 percent have participated in the food and goods-delivery economy, using Instacart, Caviar or PostMates.

The survey, which polled 3,000 people in late November, also found that 61 percent of the drivers/deliverers/errand-runners are male, 55 percent are members of a racial/ethnic minority, 51 percent are between the ages of 18 and 34, and 41 percent live in an urban area.

Source