I'm the developer of a relatively popular app (50M+ on the Play Store) and have had very disappointing experiences with the Play Store, but in a rather opposite way from the OP:
Once an app reaches a certain level of popularity, you begin to see "knock-off" apps, which are apps with a curiously similar name and icon (and screenshots and description), but which in fact don't do anything except blast the user with full-screen ads at every turn. It's literally just ads; they don't perform any actual function; they just exploit the SEO boost to serve ads to unsuspecting users.
I have tried "reporting" these apps numerous times (there are dozens of them), but Google has done nothing at all to remove these apps or suspend the accounts of these bottom-feeding "developers". The only conclusion is that the ad revenue benefits Google as well as the bottom-feeders, so Google drags its feet in taking any action. I would bet that if these apps were doing something malicious without a financial incentive for Google, then Google would take them down in a heartbeat.
I actually had the reverse experience to this. My app was 1.5 years old and had 4mil+ downloads with ~200k monthly active.
After updating my app, they banned my app instead of the other clones and crapware. Citing "Repetitive and Duplicative Content". The clones were so bad to the point that they literally decompiled my app, loaded in their own assets and published it.
Appealing did nothing and I got the exact same response as the article. That was 2 years ago.
Going by this, I would assume that my app had better Ad revenue to Google, but comparing in relative-ness, they dont care about the 4-5 figure you make. Another person will take your place in no time.
I couldn't quite remember the reason as it was quite a long time ago and there was a lot of pain, disappointment, unfairness, despair, helplessness which I'd like to move on from. But I remember it was along the lines of:
- Difficult to prove (How do you prove stolen code?)
- I am not supposed to be decompiling another app to find evidence
- What channel do I use when Google makes it so difficult to make a case/complain for anything? (There are channels, but there is no trust in those, they behave like black holes where you put in effort and just maybe, just maybe if they feel like it, they will respond.)
- With the image they portray, I felt that to Google, they would see my case as similar to a single piece of candy going missing in a Walmart store.
I found out when I saw that competitors were copying my Store Listing Text word for word (ASO), and when I downloaded them, I noticed a peculiar bug their app had which was identical to mine. It was a programatic bug due to the way the function was implemented, seeing an identical bug that only fails on the same edge case is a big red flag, so I decompiled their app and saw that my work was copied.
I did send email to the developer at fault but did not get a reply or action.
Given how amazingly good Google is at filtering or identifying content when it benefits them to do so (e.g. Content ID, and I have never seen anything pornographic break through YouTube's filters), I must believe that it would be extremely easy for them to implement the fix you desire.
Edit: Hmmm, assuming the app that you are talking about is freakin' Wikipedia, I'm assuming that if the Wikimedia can't get anyone from Google to pay attention that there is no hope for the rest of us.
Nope, it's not the Wikipedia app, but a different side project. Although there's also no shortage of sketchy third-party "wiki reader" apps that are basically ad delivery systems.
If they were actually good at removing crapware from the store, then a bit of collateral damage would be understandable. Instead, it is still filled with crapware and even when reported they do nothing. And instead, they go for honest developers.
At this point Google is practically almost hostile to honest developers.
Also, it is strange that they value the revenue from these crapware apps more than their platform's reputation compared to ios App Store.
> If they were actually good at removing crapware from the store, then a bit of collateral damage would be understandable
I don't agree. Honest developers should never be suspended such arbitrarily, not even as "collateral damage". Please remember that for an Android studio, being suspended from the Play Store means not only the end of the business, but also the end of the developer's career as an Android dev.
Why would getting suspended from Play Store mean the end of a developer's career ? Could you elaborate? Isn't it possible to continue with a new gmail account? Am I missing something here?
I read multiple stories like that online (I didn't save them but some were published here on HN). As far as the stories go, it looks like Google associates new accounts with the suspended one and suspend them as well. They do this using verification mails, phone numbers and credit card numbers. Google also tells you not to open a new account, and that it will not help you. The OP got such a warning as well, as described in the main article.
+1 to this. I also have several apps in the Google Play Store. Unfortunately, the knock-off apps are all around our apps, sometimes ranking higher in popular keywords. Some even post a screenshot of our apps!
Heck, some apps are so bad that they ruin the reputation of the entire niche (for example, a document scanner app). If the first few apps that a user downloads does not scan documents, he's naturally assuming that no apps can do it.
Reporting those apps never worked, so I stopped reporting them. Instead, we now focus on improving our apps and hoping for the best.
Google wins when users see ads, that's their whole reason to exist. They're not on your side in this battle as those ad impressions are cash in the bank.
Considering the proportion of Apple’s profit in the mobile phone and App Store market versus Google’s profit, I would say there is no golden goose period for Google.
Or, the golden goose is shoveling ads and obtaining data from all their users, but I’m not bullish on the value of that long term, especially if your users trend on the lower side of disposable income.
Globally, iOS is in decline, and Android is on the rise, and there's nothing that could change the tendency. The main driver for mobile growth is 3rd world, where Android is a king.
> Apple continues to face challenges in terms of unit shipments—a trend that is unlikely to be fixed soon. Apple shipped 35.3 million iPhones in the second quarter, down 14.6 percent from 41.3 million units one year ago.
I don’t know what you mean by “decline” and “rise”, but for discussions regarding future business viability, I look at net income instead of units sold.
One company is in the business of selling devices and services, the other is in the business I’d giving them away to siphon data to support their ad business. Margins on advertisements are going down, and if people with disposable income aren’t on your platform, then the ads aren’t worth much either.
It has become almost impossible to find apps in the Play store. I tried for 15 minutes to install a game on a tablet that my other tablet had. It had the exact same title. Turns out it was a completely different (and much harder) game. Making my daughter angry when later on travelling by car when she couldn't read many many English popups.
But I guess this is "just" the way it is when a namespace becomes too popular.
Just recently there was news about Google removing 85 apps like this from the Play Store. I have no idea why that was news, that should be just another day, because 85 adware/malware apps is basically nothing compared to the size of the Play Store and the sheer amount of actual junk you can find on there.
Is your App also available on iOS? if so: how would you compare your experiences?
Stories like these are driving me away from Android and I'm considering a switch, but it would be pointless to switch to another ecosystem when it's plagued by the same issues.
if you have good SEO you do not have to pay google. Ironically.
so by allowing the copy cats, they kill the value of your good SEO and force your hand to pay for premium placement, generating revenue that wouldn't exist to them without the malicious clones.
Who is talking about "SaS" (sic) and how is that in any way relevant? Apps are local... to your phone. Your opinion seems to be that all phone apps are a "scam"?
I can't even begin to understand what you're talking about.
Once an app reaches a certain level of popularity, you begin to see "knock-off" apps, which are apps with a curiously similar name and icon (and screenshots and description), but which in fact don't do anything except blast the user with full-screen ads at every turn. It's literally just ads; they don't perform any actual function; they just exploit the SEO boost to serve ads to unsuspecting users.
I have tried "reporting" these apps numerous times (there are dozens of them), but Google has done nothing at all to remove these apps or suspend the accounts of these bottom-feeding "developers". The only conclusion is that the ad revenue benefits Google as well as the bottom-feeders, so Google drags its feet in taking any action. I would bet that if these apps were doing something malicious without a financial incentive for Google, then Google would take them down in a heartbeat.