Brave, an ad-blocking web browser founded by Mozilla’s CEO Brendan Eich, has been around for a while, and now it seems there’s one major publisher that’s getting on-board. The Dow Jones Media Group revealed that it is partnering with Brave Software. The deal will give people who use the Brave browser the chance to access the Dow Jones Media Group’s premium content for free. This also includes premium access to Barrons.com and the MarketWatch Newsletter. The access will be on a first-come, first-serve basis. So you’d better hurry and download the Brave browser if you are interested in the deal.
In addition to this, Barrons.com and MarketWatch will be added as verified publishers on the Brave browser. The two websites will be featured on the Basic Attention Token offered by the web browser. The token is a blockchain-based system that allows consumers and advertisers to pay publishers.
Brave’s initial coin offering last year was seen as a huge success. The Dow Jones Media Group and Brave Software said that even though they were delighted with this new partnership, they will be working together moving forward in order to experiment with different ways that blockchain can be used in the media and advertising world. Daniel Bernard, Senior VP at Barrons.com, said that it’s very important for global digital publishers to keep exploring emerging and innovative technologies that can be used to deliver a quality customer experience.
It’s important to note that this agreement only includes the Dow Jones Media Group, not the whole Dow Jones organization. The organization is the publisher of The Wall Street Journal. In addition to this, based on what we have heard so far it looks like both companies are experimenting with this partnership. They are testing the waters to see what they can learn before moving forward with any meaningful partnership.
Nonetheless, this is a somewhat strange union. Online publishers are not usually open to ad-blocking software. The fact that Brave is pursuing a partnership with Dow Jones Media Group is a peculiar thing. Brave has also been aggressive in its campaign to attract users to the browser. In fact, the company is offering publishers a referral program that allows them to get access to BAT if they convince their fans to use the browser. So far, the browser is getting 2 million visitors each day. This is definitely a big step for a relatively new web browser that has to compete with giant companies like Google.
But the software developers want more. Ad blocking is an option that a lot of people would want to have as they browse the Internet. There’s clearly a need for this but many publishers argue that it could affect their revenues. Online publishers make most of their money from running ads on their platforms. But Brave says that the browser offers some notable benefits for publishers too.
