The Financial Times has reported that European mobile networks are teaming with Israeli ad-blocking firm Shine in an apparent bid to break Google’s hold on advertising.
The FT reports that technology developed by the Israeli start-up firm Shine is to be used and will filter advertisements provided by Google among others. The intention is to reduce bandwidth usage on mobile networks and force Google into hopefully giving up some of its mobile ad revenue. An executive at an unnamed European carrier confirmed that they are planning to start blocking adverts as soon as this year.
The service will initially be rolled out as an “opt-in service” but the provider is also considering applying the technology across the entire mobile network in a bid to thwart Google’s clutches. This move will surely raise some growing concerns for net neutrality, as there is a rabbit-hole of content that has the potential to be thrown into such an open debate.
Once you start blocking content of any kind, it is only a matter of time before lobby groups pressure you into blocking more, leading to a very worrying situation. The most likely explanation of all this would be that the European Commission has its own interests and wants to open up the market to more local competition.
