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Google terminated our startup's developer account – what do we do?

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Re: Google terminated our startup's developer account – what do we do?

#41

I guess the hope is to get on the front page of HN and hope someone in Play policy team sees it? Pretty sad way of handling it. I wonder if this was an automated action? I also wonder why that personal account was terminated.

For others interested, we just had a sit down with the developer and asked why they were previously terminated. They disclosed years ago they had created an app, and then decide to rebrand it for other use cases - basically "templated" apps in the play store. They were then terminated for violating the "spam" policy.

Re: Google terminated our startup's developer account – what do we do?

#43
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> These are becoming quite common. If my account would be terminated my business would be dead. How is Google not handling this better? After drilling down into these posts it's very common to find those developers stealing user data, using forbidden advertising techniques, infringing copyright or simply trying to scam around Google's 30% payment cut. Apple would kick them off the App store immediately as well (and e…

If we stipulate that you are totally correct (which I sincerely hope you are), what about the effect that permanent blacklisting can have on an individual's life? And if somebody gets banned, apparently now they must become "unclean" and be kept far away lest they "infect" the company.

I find that problematic and Google should do better.

Re: Google terminated our startup's developer account – what do we do?

#45

I've got to wonder if, after basic Twit-shaming becomes no longer scalable, Google support will basically end up taking the same essential shape as IRS support - if you receive a nastygram, you turn it over to your professional account/attorney/googvocate who's entire specialty is knowing how to "talk to" the organization.

That is not a great comparison. IRS phone support is actually pretty good. I would be ecstatic if Google could get even halfway there.

They’re actually fantastic and have a genuine desire to arrive at the correct number. I had one take over an hour on the phone to explain to me the logic behind the IRS’s position and, once it became clear that the problem was with a corrupted data import and the cost basis was incorrectly computed, took two more hours of his own time without me having to wait on the phone to arrive at the conclusion that the IRS actually owed me money. He could have resolved the call immediately by saying that he saw my position and that he’d cancel the correction and I probably would’ve accepted it. Instead, he went the extra mile and figured out the correct refund, costing the government hundreds of dollars and two more hours of his time.

I suspect the IRS gets a bad rap because people don’t like owing money and the IRS is usually right when they send corrections, but my experience left me with nothing but respect for their front-line support. To remain as friendly and courteous as they were considering the rage that must be directed towards them on a daily basis is pretty impressive.

Re: Google terminated our startup's developer account – what do we do?

#46
post #7
post #3

These are becoming quite common. If my account would be terminated my business would be dead. How is Google not handling this better?

It's a matter of policy for them to never disclose anything but the vaguest possible details about the case if there's any suspicion of wrongdoing on the user's part.

Of course, the actual practical translation of "matter of policy" is probably more like "way to save money on support staff".

Re: Google terminated our startup's developer account – what do we do?

#47

They seem to think they have plenty of developers to burn through like this as if they were some sort of consumable. But if every developer who has been banned can get other developers banned just by association, this will start slow and then move like an epidemic. They don't know it yet but unchecked this will seem to them to instantly become an existential threat to the play store. There's nothing like a geometric…

> They don't know it yet but unchecked this will seem to them to instantly become an existential threat to the play store

Unfortunately when there are realistically only 2 app stores, and considering Apple devices cannot use the Google Play Store it doesn't matter. Google can do what it wants, just like Apple can do what it wants as for there is no real consequence. There will always be another developer willing to take a dollar less for the same thing and abide by the 'rules'. We absolutely need diversification, but until these companies are split up it will never happen.

Re: Google terminated our startup's developer account – what do we do?

#48

TLDR : The guy that opened the company's account had got his own account terminated years ago. So their company account was closed as associated to that one. I don't know what got in that guy's head when he created that account, google is very strict when it comes to terminated devs trying to republish apps.

I'm not comfortable with the idea that Google can effectively dictate the employment prospects of all Android developers forever, regardless of past behavior.

Re: Google terminated our startup's developer account – what do we do?

#49

https://blog.usejournal.com/google-wrongly-terminated-our-ne... story of another startup. And mine too. I had a small utility calculator app with some 100k download and play store suddenly deleted the account. The app was in partnership with someone. No reason nothing. No way to restore. Play stores auto termination policy sucks to hell. Update: I just saw the post back. Since it went viral google reinitiated their a…

Maybe its ok for some infractions to be automated but for things with huge penalties like life-time ban of developer or removing an app that took months of work... there should be a panel of real humans or some kind of human process.

Re: Google terminated our startup's developer account – what do we do?

#50
Unfortunately, this is the way things go. If you are going to build a business on top of something offered by Google, Facebook, Amazon, Apple, etc, you will never rest easy because you should know your app can be killed at any time for any reason, right or wrong.

These companies are omnipotent and untouchable. They have these automated systems in place because they have determined them to be the most cost effective way of dealing with these issues. Even if there are specific cases that seem ridiculous, or clearly harmful to the company itself, in aggregate this is the system that works for them.

I learned this very early. For example, while in high school I had a (very) small business buying things locally and reselling on ebay. Despite having 100% positive feedback, a scam artist one day claimed to Paypal that I shipped him a brick when it was supposed to be a cell phone. The scammer had a brand new account with no feedback at all, and I had no previous issues, but Paypal decided to trust the scam artist over me with over 5 years of positive feedback. I refused to pay back the negative balance that Paypal claimed I owed them, and lost access to my account for over 15 years. During that time, I started a successful e-commerce business doing annual revenue of $5-10 million. I'd have used Paypal to process all customer payments had my account not been banned. Instead I integrated with Stripe, and Paypal lost out on upwards of $500,000 in processing fees (and counting).

But still, Paypal succeeds, and does not care.

Another example - I was an investor in a small dating app a few years ago that was doing quite well. Despite successful ad campaigns on Google, and in Apple's app store, Facebook just decided to one day block the advertising account, permanently and without reason. Despite vast effort (spanning multiple years!) to at least figure out why we were banned, no explanation was ever offered, and the app eventually was starved out due to inability to access a prime advertising channel that our larger competitors were able to access.

There is simply no way around this kind of thing. My advice is to never build a business that relies on one of these platforms - use the web to your advantage, don't get stuck behind someone else's walled garden. Try to make apps only ancillary to your business, not the main component. Be able to diversify advertising channels. Own your core competency - don't let someone else steal it overnight.

And finally the reason for the throwaway account, I believe there are rogue employees at these companies who can just shut down accounts for personal vendettas, bribery schemes, or just the lulz. We suspect that's what happened to us at facebook. So I do not want to jeopardize any current businesses I am running or investing in that is personally tied to me.

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