New Ad Blocker “Peace” Tops iTunes Paid Apps Chart Within Hours

For months, marketers have been worrying over the possibility that consumers might embrace ad blocking that’s made easier in iOS 9. Now iOS 9 is out, and within hours, a new ad blocker called “Peace” has become the most popular paid app.

The Peace app created by Marco Arment, former CTO of Tumblr and Instapaper founder, sells for $2.99 in Apple’s app store.

Within hours of the app going live, it topped the iTunes chart for paid apps for iPhone. Here it is as of 4:30am ET:

It was also number two for paid apps for iPad:

The app is technically a “content blocker,” because it blocks not only ads but other types of tracking codes and anything that is deemed worth blocking based on a list that Ghostery maintains.

Ads are only blocked in Safari, not in other browsers like Chrome. And they are only blocked if a user also deliberately enables Peace to work with Safari. That’s pretty easy to do, and the Peace app provides interactive instructions and provides a way to test if everything is working correctly.

Arment explains more about the app in a blog post, as well as his view that if publishers don’t like ad blocking, they should come up with different methods that readers will “tolerate.” From his post:

We shouldn’t feel guilty about this. The “implied contract” theory that we’ve agreed to view ads in exchange for free content is void because we can’t review the terms first — as soon as we follow a link, our browsers load, execute, transfer, and track everything embedded by the publisher. Our data, battery life, time, and privacy are taken by a blank check with no recourse. It’s like ordering from a restaurant menu with no prices, then being forced to pay whatever the restaurant demands at the end of the meal.
If publishers want to offer free content funded by advertising, the burden is on them to choose ad content and methods that their readers will tolerate and respond to.

In particular, he seems to embrace native ads:

Many publishers have already struck a great balance with non-abusive methods such as (clearly labeled) native in-stream ads, which don’t require cross-site tracking or abusive practices and make good money. (The saddest part about the abusive trackers and ads is that they don’t even make much money anymore. They’re abusing us for almost nothing.)

No doubt, if ad blocking really does grow, native ads will be one of the likely areas that publishers expand into. They also work, given that consumers often find it hard to identify them even when clearly labeled as Arment suggests.