Brave is fairly a new web browser even if it’s just a rebranded Link Bubble. We said that this browser will primarily be focused on speed and privacy aside from blocking and unblocking ads. It made some noise recently because of the idea that it will pay users Bitcoins for viewing ads. Blocking ads is still an option but certainly, getting paid for checking out an ad is much better.
The idea is that advertisers will go to Brave to distribute and publish the ads. After a certain period of time, clicks and impression will be counted. Brave will then send an invoice to those viewers and the advertisers. It seems to be an easy business framework but several publishers in the United States like the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post have raised alarm over Brave.
Brave’s plan is to entice users to view ads instead of dismiss them by giving the people incentives. Anyone can still choose to block those ads minus of course, the Bitcoin payout. Brave will replace those ads by publishers with ads from its own network. It’s actually safer for the users because their privacy will not be compromised. If they choose to block ads from third-party publishers, they don’t have to worry about their data and information reaching the advertisers for future reference.
Website publishers will mainly benefit from this new framework because for every view, they will get a 55 percent cut. A user will receive 15 percent, advertising partner another 15%, and the rest will be given to the company (55-15-15-15). The business model by Brave seems attractive for companies but not to some publishers who said that it’s infringement of their copyrights.
The Newspaper Association of America (NAA) argued that Brave is stealing their content to publish on a website. NAA President David Chavern, together with 17 other members, wrote a cease and desist notice and sent it to Brave’s founder Brendan Eich.
Eich, who was co-founder of Mozilla, said that the “the NAA has fundamentally misunderstood Brave. Brave is the solution, not the enemy.” He said:
“We sympathise with publishers concerned about the damage that pure ad blockers do to their ability to pay their bills via advertising revenue. However, this problem long predates Brave. We categorically reject the claim that browsers perform ‘republication’, and we repeat that Brave has a sound and systematic plan to financially reward publishers. We aim to outperform the invasive third-party ads that we block, with our better, fewer, and privacy-preserving ads.”
Ads are annoying but they are the bread and butter of websites and other online publishers. More people are becoming smarter by using ad blockers. The development is not favorable for the publishers obviously. It may be a while before the online ad publishing business will change.
VIA: FT.com
US newspapers
