Apple warns developers not to manipulate App Store charts

Tue 07 Feb 2012 9:51am GMT / 4:51am EST / 1:51am PST
Mobile

Using services which promote games artificially could lose you dev licence

Apple Inc

Apple has issued a statement warning its developers to avoid services which "manipulate" the App Store charts, cautioning that doing so could endanger a studio's development licence.

A post on the company's developer blog makes clear that Apple expects the charts to be a reflection of legitimate downloads alone, a clear response to recent allegations that some companies are using bot services which offer app downloads in return for payment to push games into the coveted front page positions on the storefront.

"Once you build a great app, you want everyone to know about it," reads a short entry on the site. "However, when you promote your app, you should avoid using services that advertise or guarantee top placement in App Store charts.

"Even if you are not personally engaged in manipulating App Store chart rankings or user reviews, employing services that do so on your behalf may result in the loss of your Apple Developer Program membership. Get helpful tips and resources on marketing your apps the right way from the App Store Resource Center."

Yesterday, claims emerged that third-parties were promising top 25 positions for as little as $5000.

It's far from the first piece of policing that the Cupertino multinational has had to conduct on its customer curated system. Last year, Tapjoy was scolded for offering "pay-per-install" packages to developers to promote their titles - something which was at least partially responsible for changes to the Apple ranking algorithm which saw users who download with a promotional code no longer able to rate apps.

Tapjoy's CEO Mihir Shah responded angrily to those changes, claiming that they promoted stagnation, but failed to change the policy.

More recently, Apple has found itself embroiled in scandal over copycat titles, acting to remove the works of Anton Sinelnikov, a Russian indie developer whose games were judged to be direct copies of other successful apps.

Another case, brought by Triple Town developer Spry Fox against 6Waves Lolapps, is as yet unresolved.

7 Comments

Sandy Lobban
Managing Director

Noise Me Up

Seen it done in chat type apps where people get to "look at who looked at them" via a points system, which obviously runs out and then needs the refill. To be honest the users are totally unaware they are pushing things up the download charts. Product of the "open market" I guess. People will always look for ways

Posted:A year ago

#1

Bruce Everiss

Just like the "user" reviews on Metacritic, Amazon etc
People will always try and cheat to gain advantage.
Seem there has been a rash of negative reviews on the App Store that look like they are coming from the competition.
And using download bots on free games is not rocket science.
It will be interesting to see if Apple do apply the big stick to anyone. Just recently they have been deleting apps that over plagiarise other apps. So they are capable of acting.

Posted:A year ago

#2

Simon Adams
Product Evangelist/Business Developer

Tagplay

Companies will continue to find ways to game the system. Until Apple conducts a large scale overhaul of how Apps are uploaded, updated and ranked within the Appstore this problem will continue to manifest itself in new and (in most cases) ingenious ways. That is not to say that there is a fool proof system, free from any possible manipulation, what that is to say is that Apple can do more than the offhand and, to be frank, inappropriately inconsistent banning of developers, apps and marketing techniques. If you want to clean things up, you've gotta be prepared to get dirty and this means punishing the big developers, not just the small.

Posted:A year ago

#3

Bruce Everiss

And now we discover that TopDealApps uses a network of 200,000 paid real users to download apps and so artificially boost them.

Apple have a huge problem here restoring credibility for publishers and public alike. Also they must be seen to be acting against the big rogues as well as the little ones.

Posted:A year ago

#4

Chuan L
Game Designer / Indie Developer

So does this mean that EA / Zynga will lose their developer licenses? Hardly think so, since AAPL makes a tidy sum from their sales. The blatant double standards on the Appstore are a concern for smaller developers who seem to be vulnerable to having their apps pulled, while the big boys use every dirty trick and paid user network to keep their wares in the charts.

Just compare the US charts to other regions whenever a new EA / Zynga game comes out and you will see a disparity that shouldn't be there were the game rankings not manipulated by paid networks and user downloads. The reviews are now a joke as well, being gamed by developers creating multiple accounts and pretty much everybody adding requests to "5-star" their game inside apps.

Surely, there's some smart engineers inside AAPL who can come up with an algorithm that can evaluate whether users are real or not by factoring in time spent inside the app as well. Failing that, they can just access people's contact lists covertly and determine if they're real or bots? LOL!

< sadface >


-- Chuan

Edited 2 times. Last edit by Chuan L on 8th February 2012 10:30am

Posted:A year ago

#5

Thomas Dolby
Programmer

Ai Solve

@Chuan:
News headline: Apple has released a privacy update that allows it to track how much time you spend in apps, as well as gathering information about you and your contacts through your address book.

Users: Oh god Apple don't care about our privacy *rage* etc.

(I wouldn't be surprised if they do that already actually)

It's not a simple problem to solve that's for sure. I for one sympathise with Apple over these kind of things, managing all these apps with some kind of macro solution is incredibly difficult. Not to say that they shouldn't be doing everything in their power though.

Posted:A year ago

#6

Damien Gallagher
COO

Instinct Software Ltd.

I think this might be one that Apple will have to try and contain, but will never really go away - however, if you remove/reduce the reason why these exist in the first place, then it might go away naturally, or not have as much of an effect?

For example:

1. After installing an app, don't send the user back up to the top 25 list again, especially if they have spent time browsing down the list

2. Better sorting options - not just based on download volumes - why not sort by ratings, release date, country, more fine tuned categories, something that will help bring those apps tucked many swipes away to the foreground more easily...?

Edited 1 times. Last edit by Damien Gallagher on 20th April 2012 3:59pm

Posted:A year ago

#7

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