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How to make $80k per month on the Apple App Store (2017)

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Re: How to make $80k per month on the Apple App Store (2017)

#21

Post by Maursault »

dang wrote: post #14

Past threads: How to Make $80k per Month on the Apple App Store (2017) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19416740 - March 2019 (17 comments) $80k/month App Store Scam - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14526156 - June 2017 (195 comments)

Thx for posting. The outrage is still fresh. Robert Mueller is wasting his time on President Trump when he should be investigating Ngan Vo Thi Thuy! Apple better do something about this 4 years ago!

Re: How to make $80k per month on the Apple App Store (2017)

#22

Post by Linkd »

robertwt7 wrote: post #9

How did they got through apple review process? Heck the review process is super strict that I’m being very careful for iOS app but these guys seems to know the way around it

All is takes is a feature flag that completely changes your apps functionality post approval [or better yet, when viewed from within Apples network..] Of course this will get you removed if caught, but throw enough attempts and you'll get to these results.

Re: How to make $80k per month on the Apple App Store (2017)

#24

Post by ericmcer »

robertwt7 wrote: post #9

How did they got through apple review process? Heck the review process is super strict that I’m being very careful for iOS app but these guys seems to know the way around it

Yeah seriously, I remember them flagging my app for using a JS library that had security vulnerabilities. But then they don't grep for some variant of "agree to pay/subscribe $X?" buried in the app.

Re: How to make $80k per month on the Apple App Store (2017)

#25

Post by alecthomas »

I just did a quick search for "Virus Scanner" and this was in the first 10 results:

https://apps.apple.com/au/app/phone-protection/id1282949977

Pretty clearly fake reviews, what it provides seems like a complete scam, in app subscriptions - ticks all the boxes from that article!

Four years on and it's still happening. Pretty incredible. Apple largely justifies its 30% cut as providing a curated experience, which is hard to reconcile with this reality.

Re: How to make $80k per month on the Apple App Store (2017)

#26

Post by mkhpalm »

librish wrote: post #8

This seems like a really big counterpoint to the corner stone of Apple's "30% is reasonable" take - that the App Store is a safe and curated experience. It's one thing for a one off app to slip through, but to have it make its way to the top charts with so many positive reviews is a really, really bad look.

I find it interesting that scamming regular people out of money isn't going to get an app banned from the App Store. Contrast that with the many apps we've all heard of that Apple does ban.

Re: How to make $80k per month on the Apple App Store (2017)

#27

Post by fragmede »

mkhpalm wrote: post #26
librish wrote: post #8

This seems like a really big counterpoint to the corner stone of Apple's "30% is reasonable" take - that the App Store is a safe and curated experience. It's one thing for a one off app to slip through, but to have it make its way to the top charts with so many positive reviews is a really, really bad look.

I find it interesting that scamming regular people out of money isn't going to get an app banned from the App Store. Contrast that with the many apps we've all heard of that Apple does ban.

Never mind the app, if Apple were smart, they'd punitively ban the developer and everybody associated with it from being on the App store forever. Or some number of years, anyway

Re: How to make $80k per month on the Apple App Store (2017)

#28

Post by Abishek_Muthian »

alecthomas wrote: post #25

I just did a quick search for "Virus Scanner" and this was in the first 10 results: https://apps.apple.com/au/app/phone-protection/id1282949977 Pretty clearly fake reviews, what it provides seems like a complete scam, in app subscriptions - ticks all the boxes from that article! Four years on and it's still happening. Pretty incredible. Apple largely justifies its 30% cut as providing a curated experience, which is h…

The checks and balances these large ecosystems boast off has become a hurdle to only small business who go over and above to comply with the rules, Where as these nefarious actors who game the system don't have anything dragging them down.

This seems to be case with every large digital content publishing platform and especially worse in the case of vertical monopolies.

Re: How to make $80k per month on the Apple App Store (2017)

#30

Post by fragmede »

void_mint wrote: post #16
fxtentacle wrote: post #2

Scam tech illiterate people into an expensive subscription. Kind of the same as all those "free" to play games.

> Kind of the same as all those "free" to play games. Free to play isn't a scam. They're free to play. You can choose to spend money if you'd like.

Yes, but without the word "play" (because you can't play it without paying for it), it becomes "free to", which doesn't make any sense, or if you DO pay money, it becomes "to play" which sounds like toupee. Which is another kind of scam, if you think about it. Free to play is a scam if you need to pay to actually win, except that relies on Apple's review process being any good, but as we see here, that's clearly not true.
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