谷歌等互联网巨头向广告屏蔽软件投降

Google, Amazon, Microsoft and Taboola have quietly paid the German start-up behind Adblock Plus, the world’s most popular software for blocking online advertising, to stop blocking ads on their sites.

谷歌(Google)、亚马逊(Amazon)、微软(Microsoft)和Taboola悄悄地付给世界最热门在线广告屏蔽软件Adblock Plus背后的德国初创企业一笔钱，换取后者不再屏幕它们网站上的广告。

The deals, which are confidential but whose existence has been confirmed by the Financial Times, demonstrate that some of the biggest participants in the $120bn online advertising market see the rise of ad-blocking as a material threat to their revenues.

这些交易是保密的，但它们的存在已得到英国《金融时报》的确认。这些交易证明，价值1200亿美元的在线广告市场的一些最大参与者，将广告屏蔽软件的崛起视为对其营收的切实威胁。

Adblock Plus has become one of the most popular free extensions on Chrome and Firefox browsers in recent years as internet users have attempted to eliminate the interruption of advertising. Eyeo, the German company that produces the software, says it has been downloaded more than 300m times worldwide and has more than 50m monthly active users.

随着互联网用户想方设法消除广告造成的干扰，Adblock Plus近年来已成为Chrome和火狐(Firefox)浏览器上最热门的免费扩展。开发这款软件的德国公司Eyeo表示，这款软件在全球已被下载逾3亿次，拥有5000万月活跃用户。

However, many publishers that fund their operations through advertising worry that ad-blocking will undermine their business model. German media groups including RTL and ProSiebenSat.1 are seeking damages from Eyeo, while French publishers are reportedly considering whether to follow suit.

然而，许多靠广告收入提供自身运营资金的广告发布商担心，广告屏蔽软件会损害它们的商业模式。包括RTL和ProSiebenSat.1在内的德国媒体公司正在寻求让Eyeo赔偿损失，法国广告发布商据报也在考虑是否效仿德国同行的做法。

Google and Amazon declined to ­comment.

谷歌和亚马逊拒绝置评。

Microsoft, whose Bing search ads have been unblocked, said: “We are committed to working with partners who share our vision for relevant, impactful brand interaction and respect the integrity of consumer choice.”

微软旗下必应(Bing)搜索的广告已被解除屏蔽。微软表示：“我们致力于与这样的伙伴合作：它对有意义、有影响力的品牌互动的愿景要与我们一致，而且要充分尊重消费者的选择。”

Eyeo makes money by operating a “whitelist” of certain ads that are not blocked. It says sites can join this “acceptable ads” programme only if they meet criteria such as being “transparent with us about being an ad” and “do not disrupt or distort the page content we’re trying to read”.

Eyeo靠设置“白名单”、选择性不屏蔽某些广告来盈利。该公司表示，只有满足一定标准的网站才能加入这个“可接受广告”项目，比如“明确向我们表明广告的身份”以及“不干扰或扭曲我们正试图阅读的页面内容”。

While the whitelisting process is free for small websites and blogs, Eyeo charges a fee to large companies “to make the initiative sustainable”. Eyeo declined to say how much it charged.

尽管白名单机制对小网站和博客是免费的，但“为了项目的可持续”，Eyeo对大企业收取费用。Eyeo拒绝透露收费标准。

One digital media company, which asked not to be named, said Eyeo had asked for a fee equivalent to 30 per cent of the additional ad revenues that it would make from being unblocked.

一家要求匿名的数字媒体公司表示，Eyeo索要的费用相当于广告被解除屏蔽后所能带来的额外广告收入的30%。

In judging which ads are “acceptable” and which are not, Eyeo must tread a fine line to avoid upsetting Adblock Plus users. Those who disagree with its decisions have the option of blocking all ads including those on the whitelist, or defecting to rival software such as Adblock Edge.

在判断哪些广告“可接受”、哪些不可接受的过程中，Eyeo必须小心把握平衡、以免触怒Adblock Plus的用户。那些对其决定有异议的用户可选择屏蔽所有广告、包括那些在白名单上的，或选择改用其竞争对手的软件，比如Adblock Edge。

After Eyeo proposed in an online forum in November that Taboola, an advertising network that sometimes serves racy content, should be whitelisted, one user wrote in response: “This is a joke, right? Taboola should be scorched from the internet for all time.”

去年11月，Eyeo在一个网络论坛上提议将一个有时输出不雅内容的广告网络Taboola加入白名单后，一名用户回帖道：“这是在开玩笑，对吧？Taboola应该永远被从网上根除。”

Despite the protest, Eyeo whitelisted Taboola. That decision is likely to benefit websites such as MailOnline, Business Insider and NBC News, which use Taboola to serve ads in the form of “sponsored content” recommendations at the bottom of their news articles.

尽管用户提出了抗议，但Eyeo还是把Taboola加入了白名单。这个决定很可能会造福MailOnline、Business Insider和NBC News等网站，它们使用Taboola输出的广告，以“赞助内容”推荐的形式放在其新闻文章底部。

Taboola declined to comment.

Taboola拒绝置评。