The online advertising market is hit hard by the trend of blocking online ads.
More and more consumers sick and tired of troublesome online advertising are downloading ad blocking programs.
The number of people who use such programs worldwide tripled to 144 million in June 2014 from 54 million in January 2013. An online advertising consulting firm Page Fair predicted that the number of such people would increase up to more than 200 million by the end of this year.
This trend is dealing a hard blow against companies like Google and AOL which provide ad-sponsored free Internet services and contents.
Germany's Internet media group ProSiebenSat.1 recently announced that the losses caused by advertising blocking amounted to 9.2 million euros (US$10.4 million) per year. This figure is equivalent to one fifth of its revenues it earned from its website.
