Ferocious competition on the App Store means many iOS developers eagerly embrace any tool or service promising to send their apps soaring up the charts. However, Apple has reminded app-makers that using some services may lead to them being stripped of the right to release apps for its store.
The idea of appayola – paying to artificially inflate an app's chart ranking – isn't new. A previous Apple crackdown saw developers barred from using the platform of US startup TapJoy, which involved offering free virtual currency or rewards in one game if a player installed another.
The latest controversy focuses on an unnamed startup, first referenced by a developer posting on the forum of mobile games site Touch Arcade. In it, they claimed to have been contacted by a company charging $5,000 to guarantee a Top 25 App Store placement for a free app.
"He said he had outsourced someone to build him a bot farm and the bots will automatically download his clients' apps and drive up their rankings," claimed the developer.
"He even told me that even though I might see my app climb up the app store, they aren't "REAL" at first until it gets to the top and that's when REAL HUMAN players will start seeing my app and play it."
The post named one iOS games publisher, CrowdStar, as being one of the heaviest users of the unnamed bot farm, although its co-founder Suren Markosian posted a defence on the same forum thread, suggesting that "I don't think this post is based on any deep knowledge on how top players are marketing their games in the app store".
He pointed to the use by his company and rivals of "legitimate" advertising services including Flurry, ChartBoost and Apple's own iAds.
"While I sympathize with the smaller developers who may not have as much funding as we do and feel that we are getting a free ride the fact is we are spending significant marketing dollars to achieve top ratings," wrote Markosian.
What does Apple think of this marketing dollars investment, though? The company has responded swiftly to the forum thread and subsequent coverage online, posting a message on its website for iOS developers warning them off artificial inflation of their apps' chart rankings.
"Once you build a great app, you want everyone to know about it. However, when you promote your app, you should avoid using services that advertise or guarantee top placement in App Store charts," says the message.
"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."
Well, indeed. The problem here is that the freemium apps market on iOS – particularly games – is so crowded and yet so lucrative for the apps that manage to cut through the crowd. It's been that way for a while, too.
In July 2011, analytics company Flurry claimed that 65% of the revenues generated by the 100 Top Grossing games on iOS were from freemium titles, up from 39% in January 2011. Apple's own Rewind chart in December 2011 showed that seven out of the ten Top Grossing iOS apps that year were freemium games.
The potential rewards mean developers and publishers will continue to hustle by any means necessary to boost their apps and games into the upper reaches of the App Store chart, dancing around Apple's guidelines as much as they can.
That said, long-term business models are not built on bot farms. The bots aren't buying virtual items or currency, they're not using these apps after the initial download, and they're not telling their friends about them.
A bad freemium game might crack the Top 25 due to appayola firms, but as those "REAL HUMAN PLAYERS" start to bite, it will sink quickly. Chart algorithm tweaks emphasising active usage rather than simply downloads may speed that process.
Even so, it's dispiriting to think of the App Store's Top 25 chart as a ranking of publisher marketing-spend rather than app quality, and as a place where even the great games face having to resort to bots simply to get a fair shot at finding an audience.
Dispiriting, but no surprise to most iOS developers. The interesting question right now is not how Apple can squash the bots, but how developers can focus on building sustainable businesses outside the Top 25.
The idea of appayola – paying to artificially inflate an app's chart ranking – isn't new. A previous Apple crackdown saw developers barred from using the platform of US startup TapJoy, which involved offering free virtual currency or rewards in one game if a player installed another.
The latest controversy focuses on an unnamed startup, first referenced by a developer posting on the forum of mobile games site Touch Arcade. In it, they claimed to have been contacted by a company charging $5,000 to guarantee a Top 25 App Store placement for a free app.
"He said he had outsourced someone to build him a bot farm and the bots will automatically download his clients' apps and drive up their rankings," claimed the developer.
"He even told me that even though I might see my app climb up the app store, they aren't "REAL" at first until it gets to the top and that's when REAL HUMAN players will start seeing my app and play it."
The post named one iOS games publisher, CrowdStar, as being one of the heaviest users of the unnamed bot farm, although its co-founder Suren Markosian posted a defence on the same forum thread, suggesting that "I don't think this post is based on any deep knowledge on how top players are marketing their games in the app store".
He pointed to the use by his company and rivals of "legitimate" advertising services including Flurry, ChartBoost and Apple's own iAds.
"While I sympathize with the smaller developers who may not have as much funding as we do and feel that we are getting a free ride the fact is we are spending significant marketing dollars to achieve top ratings," wrote Markosian.
What does Apple think of this marketing dollars investment, though? The company has responded swiftly to the forum thread and subsequent coverage online, posting a message on its website for iOS developers warning them off artificial inflation of their apps' chart rankings.
"Once you build a great app, you want everyone to know about it. However, when you promote your app, you should avoid using services that advertise or guarantee top placement in App Store charts," says the message.
"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."
Well, indeed. The problem here is that the freemium apps market on iOS – particularly games – is so crowded and yet so lucrative for the apps that manage to cut through the crowd. It's been that way for a while, too.
In July 2011, analytics company Flurry claimed that 65% of the revenues generated by the 100 Top Grossing games on iOS were from freemium titles, up from 39% in January 2011. Apple's own Rewind chart in December 2011 showed that seven out of the ten Top Grossing iOS apps that year were freemium games.
The potential rewards mean developers and publishers will continue to hustle by any means necessary to boost their apps and games into the upper reaches of the App Store chart, dancing around Apple's guidelines as much as they can.
That said, long-term business models are not built on bot farms. The bots aren't buying virtual items or currency, they're not using these apps after the initial download, and they're not telling their friends about them.
A bad freemium game might crack the Top 25 due to appayola firms, but as those "REAL HUMAN PLAYERS" start to bite, it will sink quickly. Chart algorithm tweaks emphasising active usage rather than simply downloads may speed that process.
Even so, it's dispiriting to think of the App Store's Top 25 chart as a ranking of publisher marketing-spend rather than app quality, and as a place where even the great games face having to resort to bots simply to get a fair shot at finding an audience.
Dispiriting, but no surprise to most iOS developers. The interesting question right now is not how Apple can squash the bots, but how developers can focus on building sustainable businesses outside the Top 25.
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