Voting for a World Without Ads

I fucking hate ads.

They’re everywhere now. Endless scrolling ads on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. YouTubers pushing Surfshark VPN for the hundredth time. Evil mobile games making you watch 60-second ads for a few coins. Giant billboards selling products and new developments on the side of the road. Electronic screens at traffic lights. Screens in Ubers and taxis. Before I moved to Malaysia, when I was renting in Taiwan, there were even screens playing ads in elevators—just to earn that monthly NT$1,400 in ad revenue.

We’re exposed to hundreds, maybe thousands of ads every day. And the worst part? You can’t turn them off!

This reminds me of Black Mirror Season 1 Episode 2—the protagonist is locked in a room with giant screens on the walls beside his bed, bombarded with ads every day, even having to pay to skip porn ads. Unless you become one of the elites, you can never escape the endless advertising. If you haven’t seen it, I really recommend it—fantastic episode.

I think reality isn’t far from that world anymore.

Yet, as someone who hates ads so much, I’ve been putting Google ads in my own app—MARU for nearly 8 years.

Inspiration from São Paulo, Brazil

Last year, while wandering the internet researching some ad-free havens, I discovered São Paulo, Brazil—a city I’d only ever seen before when playing the board game Pandemic.

In 2007, they passed the Clean City Law pushed by the mayor at the time, removing all billboards from the streets and ads from buses. According to São Paulo’s Wikipedia: “Advertisers estimate they removed 15,000 billboards, and authorities also took down more than 1,600 signs and 1,300 towering metal panels.”

They removed massive amounts of visual noise from the city and replaced them with large murals and artwork. Only after removing all this visual noise did citizens finally see the true beauty of their city again.

When I read about this, I had only one thought: That’s so cool!

In this capitalist-dominated world, how much courage does such a move take? I wish every city in the world could do this.

But sadly, most big corporations are tied to advertising. The more ads people watch, the more stock prices and GDP rise. In such a world, governments as beneficiaries have no incentive to change. I don’t see a glimmer of hope right now.

My Contradiction

“It’s just ads, everyone does it.” I kept telling myself.

Indeed, about 95% of mobile apps and games use ads to make money. If users don’t like it, they can buy the premium version. And I’ve done it well—in MARU, free users only see an ad after making 5 mistakes in practice mode. This mechanism was designed from the start, I thought it was creative, and users loved it for being so chill. Nearly 70k positive reviews worldwide prove it.

I’ve thought about adding more ads or lowering the mistake threshold to make more money, but I resisted the temptation. Every time I think about this, I feel like a good person.

But it’s not enough.

Blood Diamond Income

Last month, even with such a restrained ad mechanism, my app still generated 420k requests and 180k impressions. Google doesn’t show more data, but this means millions of requests and impressions per year.

Over 8 years, I’ve made over $30k from ads.

Worse, my app helps Google collect personal data to improve their ad targeting. This makes me feel sick. It’s like selling blood diamonds for money. Even though my app mainly targets Asian markets that are less sensitive to privacy and ads, I’m still contributing to a world I hate.

Since learning about São Paulo, the idea of completely removing Google ads and analytics frameworks has been haunting me lately.

The Hard Choice

But it’s a really hard decision.

$800 in monthly passive income is nice, of course. But there’s another bigger problem: the whole selling point of my premium version is “remove ads.” If I remove ads, my gut tells me App Store revenue will drop by at least 30-50%.

Latest research shows more money means more happiness, so why fight against money? Why fight against my own happiness? (My wife asks the same.)

Not only that, Firebase Analytics and Crashlytics are the only frameworks providing free mobile analytics and crash reporting. There’s no free lunch—Google reportedly spent $100 million to acquire them for a reason. Google provides these analytics tools to developers for free in exchange for all the personal data they can collect, making their ad targeting more precise and their stock price rise higher.

Voting for the World I Want to See

Recently, I heard Maria Popova on Tim Ferriss’s podcast talking about their decision not to put ads on their website. One sentence deeply moved me:

“Build something you’d like the world to see more of, not for the algorithm.”

I want to see a world without ads (or at least one where ads aren’t so invasive). I want to vote for this world with my actions.

Deleting Facebook and Instagram isn’t enough.

My Decision

So, starting with the next version of MARU and any apps I develop in the future, I’ve decided to remove all ads and Google analytics.

I’ve decided to accept making less money in the short term. I’ll work to compensate for the missing “remove ads” value in the premium version with other features.

As for data analytics, I’ll skip it for now. If needed, I’ll consider paying for TelemetryDeck or Aptabase, which focus on privacy and comply with GDPR. As for developing an Android version, I’m not sure what to do yet—after all, the Play Store itself is Google’s, so maybe there’s no difference?

My Small Vote

I’m just a tiny indie developer hiding in the corner, with no social media, no influence. It’s hard to change this capitalist world that favors ads, money, and GDP over people.

But at least I can cast my vote with my own creations.

Derek Sivers recently removed all Amazon affiliate links from his books page. With his website’s traffic, that income must have been huge. When I emailed to ask why, he said if he supports independent publishing but still promotes Amazon, he’d feel like a hypocrite. (Yes, he actually replied!)

I want to be that kind of person.

Even if no one cares, even if no one notices, I still want to vote for the world I want to see. A world without advertising bombardment. A world that respects users’ time and attention.

I want my products to be as clean as São Paulo.

This might be stupid, but if I can’t even make stupid decisions, how can I be a willful indie creator?

Indie development is a marathon, not a sprint. No one can fire me. Unless I die tomorrow (not impossible), this journey will last a long time. What matters is doing things that make me feel good, no matter how stubborn and stupid they seem.

P.S. I originally wanted to name the URL “fuck-ads” to match my previous post fuck-algorithms, but then I thought social media might flag it for sensitive words… Why fight against potential traffic? Fine, I admit I still bowed to the algorithm. Even though I deleted social media years ago, I still can’t escape algorithms ><_