Apple kills ad blocking tool that dares to block Apple apps

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Recently, an iOS ad blocking tool that can be called the "most powerful ad blocking tool in history" appeared in the Apple App Store. In addition to browser web ads, it can block ads built into various apps, even Apple's official software. The news media was surprised - why did Apple allow such an ad blocking tool to be available?

However, according to reports from the Financial Times and other media, Apple has quickly removed this ad blocking tool from its shelves.

This ad blocking tool is called "Been Choice". The developer used the underlying VPN (virtual private network) technology to block advertisements in Apple platform mobile software. Ads in Facebook mobile clients and Apple News clients can be "made to disappear".

The developer also claimed to launch an unprecedented business model, that is, if Apple mobile phone users are willing to watch advertisements within certain mobile phone software and contribute their mobile Internet privacy information, they can earn up to US$20 per month.

This ad blocking tool has crossed Apple's bottom line, but it was successfully put on the shelves, which shocked the industry.

According to reports, Apple recently said that it has recently "removed" a small number of software from the software store, mainly because it is worried that these software will pose a risk to user data security. Apple said that some external software installed digital certificates in iOS devices, which may cause users' personal privacy to be monitored by third parties.

Apple did not release the specific list of software removed this time, but the blocking tool Been Choice was confirmed to be among the deleted software.

In the iOS9 operating system, Apple made a bold change to allow third-party ad blocking tools to block web ads in Apple's Safari browser. Since then, a number of ad blocking tools have appeared in the Apple Software Store, and their downloads have ranked among the top.

The developer of one of the best-selling blocking tools (priced at three dollars) felt condemned and quickly removed the blocking software from the shelves, and Apple announced that it would refund users who downloaded it.

Apple allowed third parties to "legally" block web ads in the Safari browser, which caused an uproar in the entire Internet industry, and many companies and news media accused Apple of being "unethical". It is well known that online advertising is the source of income for most Internet companies. If web ads are blocked, it means that many companies will lose their income.

Google is considered the biggest victim of Apple's policy (some industry insiders believe that Apple deliberately targeted Google). Currently, Google's web search engine and search ads are still provided in a web format and are subject to blocking.

Apple only allows web ads in its own Safari browser to be blocked. Apple currently does not allow ads inside a large number of iOS applications to be blocked. In fact, a large number of iOS applications are available for free download, and the revenue model for developers is still the ads built into the software. If these ads are blocked, it will impact the revenue of a large number of iOS developers and Apple's share, which will also destroy the entire iOS application ecosystem.

Analysts predict that Apple will not allow third-party interception tools to intercept advertisements within apps in the future.

It is reported that on the Android platform, there are some interception tools similar to Been Choice that use VPN technology. Due to the chaotic management of Android software stores of many mobile phone brands, these interception software have penetrated into the mobile phones of many users.

Ad blocking is not a new technology, but it has always been a relatively low-key "gray business model" in the past. According to media reports, companies such as Google and Microsoft have secretly paid fees to some well-known web ad blocking tools in the hope that they would "let it go."

However, Apple's public support in iOS9 has made ad blocking move from a "gray business model" to an open and legal one.

It is reported that the Internet industry has begun to fight back against the ad blocking tool that Apple has promoted. Some video websites, including YouTube, will automatically check whether the ad blocking tool is installed on the user's device. If it is found that it is installed, it will force the user to watch the video advertisement before entering the video, or simply refuse to play the video to the blocking user as a punishment.

Google, which still relies heavily on web search advertising, is expected to soon launch "anti-interception" advertising technology to curb Apple's iOS platform interception.

However, some analysts pointed out that Apple's support for blocking and intercepting web ads will lead more Internet companies and news media to transform from traditional mobile website services to mobile software APP services, that is, replacing web pages with APPs. As we all know, the user experience and fluency of mobile software far exceed that of web pages, and the increase in the number of APPs is good for users of both Apple and Android platforms.

Survey reports from multiple institutions have pointed out that in the mobile Internet activities of smartphones, the use of apps has occupied a monopoly position, and the time spent on web page visits accounts for less than 20%, and the time is getting shorter and shorter. In the future, the web may become a declining technology on smartphones.

It is predicted that in the future, many news media that rely on web ads will transform to news clients. This year, Facebook, Apple, and Google have all launched third-party news aggregation clients, providing a place for news reports to live. The media can also get advertising revenue from these clients, without having to worry about web ads being blocked by others.