DZone
Thanks for visiting DZone today,
Edit Profile
  • Manage Email Subscriptions
  • How to Post to DZone
  • Article Submission Guidelines
Sign Out View Profile
  • Post an Article
  • Manage My Drafts
Over 2 million developers have joined DZone.
Log In / Join
Refcards Trend Reports Events Over 2 million developers have joined DZone. Join Today! Thanks for visiting DZone today,
Edit Profile Manage Email Subscriptions Moderation Admin Console How to Post to DZone Article Submission Guidelines
View Profile
Sign Out
Refcards
Trend Reports
Events
Zones
Culture and Methodologies Agile Career Development Methodologies Team Management
Data Engineering AI/ML Big Data Data Databases IoT
Software Design and Architecture Cloud Architecture Containers Integration Microservices Performance Security
Coding Frameworks Java JavaScript Languages Tools
Testing, Deployment, and Maintenance Deployment DevOps and CI/CD Maintenance Monitoring and Observability Testing, Tools, and Frameworks
Partner Zones AWS Cloud
by AWS Developer Relations
Culture and Methodologies
Agile Career Development Methodologies Team Management
Data Engineering
AI/ML Big Data Data Databases IoT
Software Design and Architecture
Cloud Architecture Containers Integration Microservices Performance Security
Coding
Frameworks Java JavaScript Languages Tools
Testing, Deployment, and Maintenance
Deployment DevOps and CI/CD Maintenance Monitoring and Observability Testing, Tools, and Frameworks
Partner Zones
AWS Cloud
by AWS Developer Relations
The Latest "Software Integration: The Intersection of APIs, Microservices, and Cloud-Based Systems" Trend Report
Get the report
  1. DZone
  2. Coding
  3. Languages
  4. eyeo, Adblocker plus and the future of funding

eyeo, Adblocker plus and the future of funding

Since content has been created, companies have been attempting to monetize it. Read about this new way that one ad blocking companie is making money.

Chris Ward user avatar by
Chris Ward
CORE ·
Aug. 30, 18 · Opinion
Like (1)
Save
Tweet
Share
2.54K Views

Join the DZone community and get the full member experience.

Join For Free

Content creators find ourselves in the midst of a quandary. Online content began available for free, and as the web grew we tried to find a way to pay the creators, and for many years that was advertising.

Like many things that initially seemed like a good idea, we took advertising too far, and now readers are bombarded with flying, swooshing, obnoxious attention-grabbing boxes coming from all angles.

Naturally, those interested in privacy, battery life, or plain old peace and quiet reacted and started using tools to block advertising. So much so that it's estimated that 30-40% of users now use some form of ad blocker.

Blockers don't solve the content creators initial problem: getting paid. Some are finding success in paywalls, membership programs, or donations, but many content creators have experienced a race to the bottom with pay rates and treatment from outlets.

I have been investigating emerging new methods and ideas for content creators to earn a rightful income, and imagine my surprise when I discovered two from the creators of an ad blocker.

The name "eyeo" is likely not so familiar to you, but you probably know their products.

Adblock Plus

Adblock Plus (ABP) is eyeo's best-known product, and as you read this on an Ad supported site, I won't go into too much detail about how effective it is but focus on what eyeo are trying to do differently. First, the code for Adblock Plus is open source. If you're going to install something you need to trust, being able to view the source code is a good start.

You can find the ABP source in a mercurial repository, with a GitHub mirror aimed at encouraging newer contributors. A browser extension is typically straightforward, and ABP consists of JavaScript for Firefox and Chrome, Swift for Safari and iOS, Java for Android plus a handful of python code for managing the codebase, and it's blocking sources. Commits to the codebase have gradually grown beyond the project creator Wladimir Palant, and there's a jigsaw of projects that seem well architected.

Where ABP gets interesting, and where we start to look into the future of content funding is their initially controversial "Acceptable Ads" program. Eyeo's perspective is that there is nothing inherently wrong with advertising, but more, the nature of many ads today. I spoke with Rachel Brochado from eyeo who explained to me that an independent committee oversees what governs an "acceptable ad", and who/what is allowed onto the whitelist. There is a clear list of criteria on what an acceptable ad is, but no list (I could find) of accepted ads, so it's hard to know how enforced the criteria is. Eyeo only starts taking a cut of the ad revenue after 10,000,000 impressions per month, which implies they have enough larger sites in the program to make it financially worthwhile to them. With little other information available, it's hard to know precisely how much the program benefits creatives, publishers and ad agencies.

Acquired in mid-2017, the final eyeo product is Flattr, an older player in a growing field of micropayment platforms realizing that for this model to work, they have to be seamlessly easy for end users. This is typically in the form of browser extensions such as Brave, and also Flattr. I'm still uncertain if a browser extension reduces the barrier for enough users, but we have to start somewhere. Flattr offers integration for creators with just under a dozen platforms for video makers, writers, gamers, photographers, and programmers. Content consumers (or "contributors") commit a monthly sum split between the creators (on Flattr) you patronize. It's a simple idea but relies on the right combinations of creators and contributors to match, and that might take time to build, and again, the current published list of creators isn't long. On the positive, the Flattr fee structure is lower than many equivalent services, allowing more money to flow between audience and creator than to platforms.

Is eyeo the Future of Funding?

After an initial rush of interest in their open source projects, it feels like eyeo are slowing to take a strategic view of what they do and how their products fit into that vision. The nature of their business makes people suspicious of hidden agendas, but with most activities and code out in the open, I hope people can look beyond that. I can see how ABP, Acceptable Ads and Flattr could fit together to create a funding model for the future, and I hope it's successful. I would hope that instead of multiple paywalls and subscription programs, a standard of sorts emerges to allow us to pay for content fairly. Having seen a handful of publications try switches from advertising to alternative models, and unable to replicate the same level of revenue, I'm unsure we're ready yet. However, with mainstream consumers increasingly questioning the business models of many tech companies, maybe this comes sooner than we think.

Plus (programming language) Creator (software) ADS (motorcycle)

Opinions expressed by DZone contributors are their own.

Popular on DZone

  • Kubernetes-Native Development With Quarkus and Eclipse JKube
  • 10 Most Popular Frameworks for Building RESTful APIs
  • Spring Boot vs Eclipse MicroProfile: Resident Set Size (RSS) and Time to First Request (TFR) Comparative
  • ClickHouse: A Blazingly Fast DBMS With Full SQL Join Support

Comments

Partner Resources

X

ABOUT US

  • About DZone
  • Send feedback
  • Careers
  • Sitemap

ADVERTISE

  • Advertise with DZone

CONTRIBUTE ON DZONE

  • Article Submission Guidelines
  • Become a Contributor
  • Visit the Writers' Zone

LEGAL

  • Terms of Service
  • Privacy Policy

CONTACT US

  • 600 Park Offices Drive
  • Suite 300
  • Durham, NC 27709
  • support@dzone.com
  • +1 (919) 678-0300

Let's be friends: