Introducing Liberate - Ad Block Blocker for iOS developers

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Introducing Liberate - Ad Block Blocker for iOS developers - Published on 10/08/15

Impala Studios introduces Liberate, an Open Source ad-block blocker for app makers who want to keep their apps free. In reaction to the appearance of content-blocking software on iOS devices, Liberate Ad-Block Blocker (LABB for short) gives users the choice: allow ads or buy the app. Developers rely on advertising revenue to provide free apps. Many startups rely on advertising revenue or on the prospect of creating a large user base which can be monetised (with ads) at a later date.

Haarlem, Netherlands - Impala Studios introduces LABB - Liberate AdBlock Blocker - on GitHub. This is code for app developers to detect ad-blocking software in iOS. The first release was on the 7th October 2015 and was built in reaction to ad blocking apps such as Been Choice (c) that block advertising in native apps by routing the users over a VPN. Besides damaging app developers' revenues from advertising, these ad blocking apps can track their users' traffic and will start selling their user's attention to advertisers, introducing a new layer between the consumer and the product. Developers rely on advertising revenue to provide free apps.

Frank List, CTO of Impala Studios, had this to say: "Recently we came across an app called Been Choice, which allows iOS users to disable advertisements in native apps. Besides the privacy issues that users of this app will have, as explained on TechCrunch, we think this is a very disturbing development for all app developers, mobile users and innovation in general.

Many innovative ideas and apps are being developed by smaller or one man development companies. But precisely these small app developers will be the first ones to be put out of business because of the lack of advertising revenue. They will not have the resources to be able to handle this vital missing income. In the long run this will result in the mobile market losing an important part of their creativity.

Secondly, consider startups. Many startups rely on advertising revenue or on the prospect of creating a large user base which can be monetised (with ads) at a later date. Without the possibility of advertising revenue, these startups will have a very hard time getting any funding at all in the future, which in the end will result in even less creativity in the app market.

Not only are these ad blockers bad for our business, they are also bad for the businesses of many fellow app developers out there, bad for the end user and bad for overall technical innovation. Ad blockers like Been Choice are only really a success for the owners of the ad-blocking app, who see all the traffic being sent through their own VPN server, with the possibility to sell this very detailed personal data.

Overnight, we developed a system that detects if an end user is using an ad blocker. If this is the case we politely ask the user to disable ad blocking, or we redirect to the paid version of the app.

If all developers implement this system, we foresee that native ad blockers will not become a problem, thus benefitting the entire mobile ecosystem. Download the code on GitHub as open source. Enjoy!"

Impala Studios: http://www.impalastudios.com
Liberate AdBlock Blocker: http://impalastudios.com/blog/item-164
Download from GitHub: https://github.com/ImpalaStudios/AdBlockTesterForIOS
App Icon: http://impalastudios.com/images/news/news-1444222737-200x200.png


Impala Studios is a 20-strong mobile app developer, based in the Netherlands, creating a wide variety of utility applications. The portfolio contains utilities and content browsers that are used by millions of daily active users and are the top ranked apps in worldwide App Stores. Copyright (C) 2015 Impala Studios. All Rights Reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, iPhone, iPad and iPod are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries.


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