Tech companies seek to address publishers' ad-blocking problem with tools to circumvent ad-blockers, like Admiral which recently raised $2.5M
Technology companies are selling software designed to counteract the effects of ad-blocking — As consumer adoption of online ad-blocking tools continues … Tweets: @sapna , @tombrenn and @seanammirati Tweets: Sapna Maheshwari / @sapna : anti-ad blocking companies w/names like Secret Media are on the risehttp://www.wsj.com/articles/the- rise-of-the-anti-ad-blockers-1465805039 ... Tom Brennan / @tombrenn : “Publishers lost $24 billion [due to] ad-blocking” How much lost due to ad “tech” that turns readers away? http://on.wsj.com/1VUkacU via @WSJ Sean Ammirati / @seanammirati : “The Rise of the Anti-Ad Blockers” in @WSJ http://on.wsj.com/1VUkacU featuring Birchmere Portfolio co @getadmiral
Context & Ripple Effects
The ad-blocking fight has entered its funded phase. After blockers topped the App Store in 2015 and some publishers began hiding content from blocker users, the IAB moved to standardize the response with an Ad Blocking Working Group distributing detection code. Admiral's $2.5M raise shows a vendor layer now forming around that counter-offensive, selling circumvention rather than detection alone.
The stakes cited are large — reports put publisher losses at $24 billion — and capital is flowing to both sides of the war: months later, Brave raised $4.5M for its ad-blocking browser. The later finding that 30.5% of the top 10K Alexa sites run anti-ad-blocking code, often hidden from visitors, suggests this 2016 vendor wave became mainstream practice.
First-order effects
- Admiral converts its raise into a product sold directly to publishers, who can restore blocked ad impressions immediately — but do so against readers who explicitly opted out.
- Publishers adopting circumvention tools trade short-term recovered revenue for the risk of reader backlash, since many deployments operate without disclosure.
Second-order effects
- Blocker developers respond with stronger filter lists and detection-evasion countermeasures, turning each circumvention release into a recurring arms-race cost for both sides.
- Consumer-side players like Brave gain a marketing wedge: every heavy-handed publisher countermeasure strengthens the case for a browser whose default position blocks ads outright.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, the industry splits structurally: a covert circumvention layer embedded in most major sites versus a paid/consent layer, with the hidden-code prevalence found in later audits indicating which side won distribution.
- Widespread undisclosed circumvention invites regulatory or self-regulatory scrutiny of transparency standards, echoing how the IAB's working-group approach tried to legitimize detection code two years earlier.
The trend: Online advertising is settling into a durable, dual-sided arms race in which both ad-blocking and anti-ad-blocking are venture-funded product categories rather than temporary skirmishes.