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Okay. So let's talk about the black hat techniques.
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So as with anything be an algorithm or search engine, if it has rules then it can be gamed.
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And this is what's happening on both the Google Play store as well as the iOS App Store.
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There are a whole bunch of companies in China that does something called 刷榜 (shuabang). And what they do is
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that they have 150 to 200 employees each manning a rack that looks like this with maybe 100 iPhones
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that each have an iTunes account.
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So, in China in order to sign up for iTunes account you don't need a credit card.
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So these companies have generated loads and loads of iTunes accounts. And what they do is that once you
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pay for a boosted ranking of your app they go and download your app on every single one of these iTunes
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accounts.
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Then they uninstall it.
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So effectively what you get is maybe 10,000 or 20,000 downloads of your app in a day propelling it up
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the category rankings.
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Now what they can also do is to leave five star reviews. So if you have come across a five star review
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that looks like it was jibberish, then it was probably done by one of these companies. And the tactics
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for Android is even crazier.
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So they can install widgets like you thought that you were downloading a widget for the weather app.
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Well actually what it does is that while you're asleep at night your phone is installing and uninstalling
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loads and loads of apps in order to boost those apps in the app rankings.
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And it's well-known that there's a lot of phones that have and it's well-known that you can get a lot
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of security vulnerabilities on Android phones.
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So you can have rats installed,
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you can have things that basically take over your device and do things that help the guy who made it
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make money by propelling people's apps to the top of the app stores.
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Now this can suck if you are that guy who a) gets your phone hijacked by some company that's downloading
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all of these random apps which then gets uninstalled before you notice anything.
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But also it sucks for those people who are genuinely trying to put a good app onto the app store when
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you're trying to compete with these types of practices.
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So I mean one of the things is that this is actually not cheap.
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So for example this is a screen cap that somebody took from a company that offered this type of service.
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So to translate if you want to get a top 10 in the games category then you're going to have to pay about
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seven grand upfront for getting into the charts.
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And then every week you're going to have to pay about 30 grand in order to stay in the top 10.
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But once you get there in the charts then you're guaranteed to get tens of thousands of downloads
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per day. And if you can monetize those users well then you will make more profits than how much you paid
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to the guys who did this.
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But the thing about this is that a lot of the practices are illegal especially for the Android platform.
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And in order to sustain in the top 10 if you don't actually have a good product, you will have to keep
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paying that money in order to get these artificial downloads.
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And remember those artificial downloads don't generate you any revenue.
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These guys who are working on getting your app download and getting it reviewed are not going to pay
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you for your in-app purchases.
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And in fact if they have to pay to install that app you're going to have to foot the bill for that.
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So if your operative needs to pay $1.99 for your app, then you're going to have to subsidize that one
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nine nine.
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But remember that Apple and Google both take a 30 percent cut of whatever it is that you earn on the
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app stores.
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Both app stores are kind of turning a blind eye onto this practice because they're actually earning
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a whole load of money out of it.
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Now one of the things that's really rampant outside of China is review gaming.
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So basically anybody with a Google account can review your Android app and anybody with an iTunes account
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can review your iOS app.
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And if you search on a jobs board like fiverr.com you'll see a lot of people who will give you X
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number of views for $5.
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And my advice is to stay well away from it because while I say that Apple and Google are turning a blind
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eye to this I have seen cases where apps get pulled because the app developers trying to manipulate
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the app stores by review gaming or by downloads gaming.
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And if you do get picked up by either of these platform it can end up in a lifetime ban.
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So my advice is just stick with the white hat techniques.
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There's plenty to choose from
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and they really do work.
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And if you want long term sustainable organic downloads then white hat is the way to go.