Google yanks new ad-blocking app from the Play Store
Rocketship apps, which makes Adblock Fast, shared with The Next Web a nastygram from the Google Play Review Team that details a violation of Section 4.4 of the Google Play Developer Distribution Agreement:
The rule says developers can’t build apps that “interfere with other applications.” This seems like a selective interpretation, given that Rocketship apps is using an official API from Samsung in order to implement the blocker.
Additionally, a similar plugin for Samsung’s browser is still listed in the Play Store even though it does the exact same thing.
Often these decisions get reversed. That could happen here, or it could be the beginning of a general crackdown on ad blockers by Google. We’ll definitely keep an eye on how this develops.
The story behind the story: The bulk of Google’s business still comes from advertising revenue, so it’s not tremendously surprising the company wouldn’t be too cool with ad blockers. The company brought in $74.5 billion in revenue in the last quarter, driven primarily from its core advertising business. With so much at stake, the company won’t be embracing ad-blocking anytime soon.