I always suspected that that someone was faking the downloads. Now it went public. See the forum discussion on TouchArcade:
http://forums.toucharcade.com/showthread.php?t=121800
and an artical from pocketgamer:
What do you think?
SpriteLogic.
App Store Top Free Charts Manupulated by Fake Downloads from Bot-Farm Companies
(107 posts) (24 voices)-
Posted 3 months ago #
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Eh. How do you tell if it's really a bot farm? It's an anonymous accusation with no real evidence.
Here's how I would run a top-25 guaranteed program.
Contact web turn-based game admins.
Tell them you'll pay them 3k if they can get their users to download an app 20,000 times.
Admin puts up a banner and says you'll get 2 extra turns (you normally only get 1 turn/hr) if you go and download this app (it's free!).Result: Admin makes $3k where normally it would've been 0. Middleman takes a cut. Developer gets top 25 position. Incentivized installs shifts from apps to the web where Apple doesn't have control.
I'm sure there are a ton of other ways to incentivize installs from web-based portals/games/etc. Hell, you might even be able to buy a site on flippa where you already have an existing user-base where you can direct to the app store. Since most of these are "closed communities", it's very hard to come across one unless you play that specific game.
Posted 3 months ago # -
If I were to get into the top 25, I would call my alien friends from the planet Ohscam, and make them hack Apple. They can do that you now, because they have super cool technology, have beaten global warming, and a lot of other stuff. Steve Jobs was one of them, and no, he did not die. He just went back home. So did Elvis.
Posted 3 months ago # -
Incentivized installs shifting from the app space into the web space has already happened. There's just too big of a demand for it and too much money for it not to be fulfilled. How it's fulfilled is being fought out right now.
Over a year ago, gWallet (a RadiumOne company) offered a top 25 guaranteed ranking package. Not sure if they still offer it today, there's only one ambiguous link on a quick Google search. It's an expensive way of doing it though. I suspect incentivizing installs through web-based communities is a much cheaper way.
Posted 3 months ago # -
There will always be a lot of speculation, but the bottom line is, that not only does Apple have full control of what is downloaded, the also have the biggest wallet to pay the best minds, to make absolutely certain, that it stays that way.
Cheating yourself into the top 25 is a no-go!
Posted 3 months ago # -
AnonDev
MemberOk, this is a throwaway account. This post is anonymous. I will be sending this to TouchArcade and PocketGamer as well
I want to start by saying why I write it. The reason is simple - we want scams removed, just like you guys. We want the AppStore to be an honest market. The notion of AppStore depending on various frauds is just wrong. I am not going to mention the name of any company here though. However, there is quite a few of them, make your own research
The scam WORKS. We've tested it, we got the results
We knew something was wrong but the deal was simple - top 50 free in US [more on that later] and we got it. We've asked questions regarding our concerns, but they skillfully replied to them. We had an agreement and didn't want to have legal troubles over them. So we paidI can't *prove* it's a scam, but I can give you a few reasons why it must be. Just connect the dots
1) We got a bit over 30.000 downloads
2) Pretty much all of the downloads on the day of promotion were from US. No banners work that way
3) From those downloads we got none, zero, nil, none, NULL reviews. No ratings either
4) Our database (that we use for push notifications) recorded very, very few new users. So the prmotional downloadees didn't even run the app
5) Only US rankings were affected
6) We observed the rankings over time - it was absolutely clear that downloads were sent in packets. We'd get a major jump in rankings then nothing would happen for some time, then another massive jump. Normal users don't download in sync, do they ?We've also seen offers like:
X amount of downloads in US AppStore for specific price. How do you provide an exact amount of downloads if not by using bots ?So in short - this exists and it's ruining the rankings
Do I condemn those that use it ? Yes and no. Those who started ruined the chances for the rest. So what do they do ? They adapt
Posted 3 months ago # -
All I'm saying is not all of these are outright scams or bot farms.
If a new company figured out a way to lower CPI to 10c, it'd only cost $4k to get 40k downloads and within striking distance of top 25 if not already within it. It's not totally unbelievable that it can be done. CPI of $1 is just too tempting for there not to be a lot of competition in the user acquisition game.
Posted 3 months ago # -
I'm not defending this particular company, but just offering a different POV for discussion.
1. Game admin can specify that player must use US store to d/l b/c that's how he's getting paid. Players don't care, they just want their extra turns or extra land or extra tanks. So they go into the app store, change the country, and sign up for a free US account and download it.
2. As a player, I just want my extra tanks/land/turn/etc. I might not even have an iPhone, but I can still download the app from iTunes on my PC.
3. Not sure about this. But with bot farms, wouldn't it be trivial to set it up so it spaces out downloads over the day?1 + 2 were the same issues when incentivized installs were allowed in the app store. Advertisers specified only specific countries as to not waste their advertising money and a lot of users opened up the app just long enough so they got their free credits and never opening it again.
Btw, my reply wasn't to you @AnonDev. It was to Birkenmose, but your post came in before I hit post.
Posted 3 months ago # -
AnonDev
Member;)
Well, what you write is strangely familiar to the response that we got when we asked about the legitimacy of the downloads. Of course it's not directed to you, it's just that we heard a really good cover story
However...
1) you know and we know that there is no such game
2) we didn't see any reviews nor any ratings from those downloads
3) none of them accepted the push notification alerOf course it's theoretically possible that 30.000 people mindlessly downloaded a game in packets at specific full hours and none of them cared to play it or review it...
I just find it... hard to believe ;)
Posted 3 months ago # -
Just saw your post on TA. If this gets big enough, I wonder if it'll force some players in this field to reveal their methods. If that happens, then it's a huge win for indies. Doubtful though.
1. How do you know for sure there is no such game? I've played web-based games where they actively encourage you to click on the ads to get extra turns. Just a small leap to go from that to download an app to get those extra turns.
2/3. They probably didn't even open it up once. Heck, most probably didn't even have iPhones. But they do have iTunes and can download stuff on their PC.If it turns out this guy is using a bot farm, yeah, he should be banned and Apple should do whatever they can to stop this kind of thing in the future. But if the next guy comes up with a great idea, able to lower CPI to $.10 and gets lynched on a board, then we missed out a great to way lower our own acquisition costs.
Posted 3 months ago # -
ayt
MemberI can't believe that the price is so high for the downloads.
They simply do this:
*create an fake iTunes account
*download the app via iTunes
*reset iTunes to default
*restart at the beginningThis could all be done with an auto-click tool on a PC.
Why do you need a bot farm? Did I forget something?
Posted 3 months ago # -
AnonDev
MemberI definitely hope someone will put a stop to this madness. Apple should have months ago but they didn't. Not surprising - for Apple problems do not exist until media get interested...
Ok, you're right - maybe there are games like that. This would actually be an extremely smart idea !
However... I don't think there is a way you can check if I have downloaded a specific app, can you ? How could a company verify such purchases then ? And if you cannot verify that someone downloaded - how can you provide very specific amount of downloads ?
And again - 30.000 downloads and noone runs the app ? Noone plays it ? You know that's not the way things are
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Let's now compare this to the previous greatest method - FAAD. Many people disagreed with them but FAAD actually provided honest downloads. We've used them and I can compare the results:
FAAD - no guaranteed amount of downloads, rankings rise steadily (sometimes fast sometimes slow, but steadily, not in jumps). ad revenue increases immediately with the start of the campaign. ratings/reviews appear. database registers new users who accepted push notifications
Bot-farms - guaranteed amount of downloads. rankings simply jump then take a break before another jump. ad revenue doesnt change. no rankings, no ratings. database sees no change eitherPosted 3 months ago # -
AnonDev
Member@ayt - its not so easy. IIRC you need to enter either a credit card or a gift code during the account creation. Also, you need to create in excess of 30.000 of such accounts. Possibly in order to cover the operation a little bit you need to have even more accounts. Say 50.000
This is a bit tricky - you need to go through the form 50.000 times to create accounts, then during the actual action you need to purchase the app 30.000 times
And mind you - 30.000 times is one purchase every 2.5 seconds. That's longer than it takes Apple to process the request. So you need to use multiple computers
Ain't so trivial really
Posted 3 months ago # -
bradparks
Memberwell Apple could easily have the rankings based on play time, not on just downloads. They know when an app's launched, and how long it's the foreground task. So they know the actual amount of time people are playing/using apps. If they used that as the metric to measure popularity in the appstore, then they'd stop the relevancy of scams that are just download based. Tracking downloads is an old game... Kind of like when Google used to use Page Rank.... I'm sure Google is now using things like the amount of time spent on a site to track what's important... that's one of the reasons they give away Google Analytics and the Google toolbar... To track stuff like that. Apple owns the entire system under which this stuff runs, so they could track it down to the millisecond....
Posted 3 months ago # -
AnonDev
Member@bradparks - sure they could. But they don't ;)
AppStore is visibility-driven. If you're high in rankings, then people see you. If they see you - they download. If they download - you stay up. But how to get high in the first place ? Being featured is difficult, getting on TA frontpage even harder. You need to get this initial 20-30k downloads and bot farms are just the fastest way
FAAD used to work well - until bot farms. Now FAAD is just a shadow of what they used to be
Posted 3 months ago # -
Yeah, I am part of the conspiracy ;)
Because it simply is not possible, and because Apple controls this, not a bunch of chinese hackers. How do you think they got the richest company in the world? By letting taiwanese bot farms rule their rankings? I bet you NOT!
Apple has an immense interest in fair rankings. Major game companies spend big time $$$ on developing games for iOS, and if they felt there was something fishy, and that a bunch of pimpelfaced hackers with low hanging jeans were messing up their investment, they would turn to other platforms.Please dont give us this conspiracy crap.
Posted 3 months ago # -
bradparks
Memberoh yeah.... i totally agree that Apple isn't doing it.... but it's a *decision* to not do it.
and the decision is in their best interest.... so I don't think they're gaming the numbers at all, but by having it so "downloads" is the metric for top stuff, they make it so the big players can show up well because they've got the brand recognition... and Apple wants big players to be on the iPhone, as it builds it up as a gaming platform...
so apple could make it better, but it wouldn't help their platform as much.....
Posted 3 months ago # -
AnonDev
Member@Birkemose - why do you say that Apple has interest in fair rankings ? I don't get why would you think that way
Pretty much every week you see scam apps that reach really, really high before Apple do anything about it
Most recent - Temple Jump. 'Entertainment' 'app' that was top 1 paid for a moment. It was a scam and obvious one at that. Reviews ? One star after another. Did Apple care ? Did Apple care when rankings were cluttered with battery boost apps, with lockscreen apps, with fingerprint scanners ? No, they didn't. And they don't care about botnets either
There once was a case were Apple reacted. But not because of rankings being affected, but because there was a stream of money that Apple didn't tap to. That was TapJoy's case
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Once again - we've used one of those scam networks. You obviously didn't. Try one of them and see for yourself. They offer guaranteed downloads but I assure you that none of those installs will bring you an actual client
Posted 3 months ago # -
I have seen (according to appannie.com) one free app that jumped from 500+ in the puzzle category to number 3 in one day (the chart is a vertical line). Before that sudden jump the app was steadily tanking. On the same day the paid version actually tanked a little bit before the downloads picked up the second day. Also that sudden jump only happened in the US. I am not sure if there are bot farms. But it's certain there are techniques that could dramatically boost the downloads in one day and, apparently, it only works for the free version.
SpriteLogic.
Posted 3 months ago # -
AnonDev
Member@Birkemose - LOL, I honestly expected more of you. I have not seen a single post of yours that would even try to respond to any of the claims I made (no reviews, no ratings, no ad revenue, jump is only in US and so on). All you say is 'go away'. The problem is real and if you care - do some research. If you don't - at least don't ruin the thread with your completely pointless reply
@SpriteLogic - if I send you some e-mails over pm - would you be willing to put screenshots of their sudden jumps ? With their names blurred out of course. It seems that my throwaway account is not going to convince certain individuals, yet they're to proud to do research themselves
Posted 3 months ago # -
re: free accounts
1. You can create free accounts without credit cards attached to them. Just google for the method.
2. You cannot create more than 3 free accounts on the same machine. I don't know if this is time limit or hard limit.
3. None of these actually matter because a really motivated hacker will get around these.Re: tracking
Apperang figured out a way to track downloads. You had to download it on iTunes so they could track it, but the vast majority track downloads by integrating their SDK. Too bad Apperang ran out of business and I have no idea how they did it w/o a SDK. You can kind of track via LinkShare (there's a mobile orchard link somewhere), but I doubt players will accept a 3 day delay.re: AppAnnie
I see jumps all the time too, but it's useless. How do you know they didn't cut a deal with the maker of 100-in-1 utility app that has 5 million installs to do a full page ad on launch? My point is, it could be a bot farm or it could be legit. We have no idea just looking at charts and there's not enough capacity to monitor every single app or every single source where they could be getting those downloads.While I believe there might be something going on here, I can't see Apple cutting off devs because I too can take screenshots and draw squares on them.
Posted 3 months ago #
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