蘋果、谷歌、FB：對泛濫的在線廣告說再見？

蘋果、谷歌、FB：對泛濫的在線廣告說再見？

那些習(xí)慣于在智能手機(jī)和筆記本電腦上發(fā)布惱人廣告企業(yè)的好日子恐怕很快就要到頭了。因為如今不僅僅是越來越多的自動廣告屏蔽工具越來越受到歡迎，同時還有不少互聯(lián)網(wǎng)巨頭開始下定決心整治這一日益泛濫的在線廣告現(xiàn)象。

測試中可能遇到的詞匯和知識：

flagrant 明目張膽的

wholesale 廣泛地

nudges 輕推

browsers 瀏覽器

itching 渴望的

Apple,Facebook and Google flex mobile ad muscle（771words）

By Richard Waters

Recent announcements highlight how the tech groups aim to set rules for advertisements on devices

Ibet it is starting to feel like open season on mobile advertising. From next week,iPhone users will get the chance to download software from the App Store to block adverts from their Safari web browsers. The move comes soon after Google said it would relegate mobile sites in its search rankings if they are too flagrant in pushing advertising for their own apps.

Is digital advertising under threat as audience attention moves wholesale to smartphones and tablets?Not likely. But the companies that control the main digital platforms are flexing their muscles: advertising is changing,and they aim to set the rules for what comes next.

That is the main message from a round of recent announcements. These include Facebook's Instant Articles,a mobile-first attempt to bring news directly on to its own platform. The site is nudging its users to spend less time with publishers' own services（and the ads that support them）and more time with news hosted on its servers.

This is all being done in the name of giving users a superior experience. Certainly,some advertisers have hurt their own cause. Slow loading times for mobile web pages — the reason that Facebook said it needed to act — are partly caused by advertising. And when users are paying for data,bad mobile experiences cost more than just time.

Who gets to block ads,of course,is just the flip side of what will turn out to be the more important question: who gets to decide which ads get through — and how the money that flows from them is shared?

Relatively few iPhone users are likely to adopt ad blocking. Fewer than one in 10 desktop and laptop users have added it as an extension to their browsers. But Apple devices are a highly profitable platform: about 42 per cent of mobile browsing takes place on its Safari browsers,according to NetMarketShare,and its more affluent customer base makes the iPhone a highly attractive target for advertisers. For an advertising-centric company such as Google,taking even a small slice out of its business on iPhone would be painful.

The latest initiatives by Apple and Facebook in the news business leave both in a strong position to set the terms. Apple may be offering users the chance to go ad-free in their browsers but users will not be able to escape the company's own advertising system. Apple News — the new Flipboard-like app it is also launching next week as part of the iOS9 operating system — will still carry commercial messages from iAd. That mirrors Facebook,which will keep a slice of the advertising sold alongside its Instant Articles advertising for itself.

Google has its own way of organising an unruly universe of ad-supported mobile services to its advantage. Its efforts earlier this year to demote mobile sites were so controversial that they are known in the ad world as “Mobilegeddon”. But they are part of a broader effort to enhance its users' engagement with the mobile web — and,in the process,get its own mobile ad rates up.

For publishers,meanwhile,the deals that Apple and Facebook offer are a bargain that many will feel they cannot refuse. But it is unclear whether this will ultimately leave them in a better or worse position than they are in already. For many,pricing power has already been leaking away as they have come to rely more on the ad networks that sell programmatically,which use automated computer systems to deliver marketing messages across the internet.

Much depends on who ends up in the driving seat when the mobile ad ecosystem settles down. Companies that control the devices — and none more so than Apple — should be in a strong position. Mobile apps with mass audiences that become platforms in their own right,such as Facebook,will also have the power to direct attention.

And then there are the mobile operators. Carriers in Europe have been itching to get a slice of the profits from the advertising that flows through their networks. Some have been emboldened to consider blunt tactics,threatening to block advertising from internet companies such as Google unless they are cut in on the action.

The operators should take a lesson from Apple,Facebook and Google. Rather than resorting to bullying tactics,they would do better to claim to be acting in the name of better user experience. Demonise the advertising delivered by rivals,then use the veiled threat of blocking it to come up with a way to insert themselves into the advertising value chain. It may not be subtle,but it is a hard act to resist.