Google terminated our start-up Google Play Publisher Account • Hacker News Board

Re: Google terminated our start-up Google Play Publisher Account

#61

Post by Quanttek » Sun, Dec 30, 2018, 1:52 PM UTC

saalweachter wrote: post #59

usrusr wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The showcase pieces in their portfolio are urban mobility apps. Doesn't get much less shady than that. But the ad and in-app revenue streams mentioned in the article suggest that they have also been active in other fields. In-app purchases that still go on after account termination might be a hint in the right direction though: would IAPs via Play still be going on? External ("untaxed") IAPs are the biggest sin from…

Nitpicking, there've been shady "urban mobility" apps before. Remember that one which told you which platform your train at eg Penn Station was likely to come in on, so you could wait on your track instead of in the designated waiting area? To put it in clickbait terms, "station operators HATE this", because there are a variety of safety and efficiency problens with people waiting on the platform, even when it helped…

Your apps/schedules don't tell you the platform? Here (GER & NL), they always tell you the track - be it official apps or the paper schedules - and all waiting areas are on the platforms themselves. Utrecht is the only exception I know, where there are still larger designated waiting areas outside the platform (tho the building is on top of the platforms, so you basically wait next to the escalator)

Re: Google terminated our start-up Google Play Publisher Account

#62

Post by sideshowb » Sun, Dec 30, 2018, 1:54 PM UTC

zenexer wrote: post #39

For those of you wondering, it appears that the company mentioned in the article, GreenLionSoft [1], develops apps that show public transportation schedules in Spain, at least as of 2017 [2]. Their Google Play page still exists in some places but has been cleared of all apps [3]. I can't find Pablo A. Martinez's personal developer account; the closest match is com.pablomartinez, which belongs (belonged?) to a law for…

Perhaps they consider this sort of app a direct competitor to Google maps?

Re: Google terminated our start-up Google Play Publisher Account

#63

Post by dna_polymerase » Sun, Dec 30, 2018, 1:57 PM UTC

skilled wrote: post #11

dna_polymerase wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Still not entirely sure what kind of apps this guy is making Yeah so you decided to post this bullshit comment and spread FUD instead of reading a few paragraphs into the actual article.

Did he edit the article to mention what his apps are about? Let me check. /s

The name of his company was linked all the time.

Re: Google terminated our start-up Google Play Publisher Account

#64

Post by ryanlol » Sun, Dec 30, 2018, 1:58 PM UTC

chillydawg wrote: post #27

ryanlol wrote: post #2

>If I have a problem with Google Ads, I can just make a phone call and have direct customer support. hahahahahhahahaha no

As with all things like this, it depends on entirely who you are and how much you spend.

The same certainly applies to play store, “hahahaha no” still accurately reflects the general case for both platforms.

Re: Google terminated our start-up Google Play Publisher Account

#65

Post by lern_too_spel » Sun, Dec 30, 2018, 2:02 PM UTC

simonh wrote: post #38

ForHackernews wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait, am I understanding correctly that Apple and Google actually charge developers money to produce the content that Apple and Google monetize on their app stores?

IIRC it’s about $100 or so per year. Basically hobby money just to make sure anyone submitting apps for review means it.

That $100 per year is required just to keep apps installed on your own iDevices, let alone submitting them for review.

Re: Google terminated our start-up Google Play Publisher Account

#66

Post by PavlovsCat » Sun, Dec 30, 2018, 2:03 PM UTC

taneq wrote: post #33

komali2 wrote: post #12

Wow, I feel for that company. I was always skeptical of people raising alarm bells at everything "going chrome," but now I'm starting to get it - Google has the ability to just nuke a company from orbit on a whim, and I'm not sure anybody can do anything about it. Sure, that company developed a business around Google. But it still feels bad. The only problem is that I don't trust a large portion of American politicia…

> Google has the ability to just nuke a company from orbit on a whim, and I'm not sure anybody can do anything about it. And that's why you don't build that critical point of failure into your product, even if it's harder and more expensive to do it another way. Which, sadly, means don't build your company around an Android app. They can do this to your personal Google account, too. What are the repercussions, to mos…

> Hint: What's the recovery email address for all of your random online services?

hey_$service_dont_spam_me@my_domain.com

> What's your personal contact email for work, taxation

my_name@my_domain.com

I always thought of gmail like gmx.net or something, it's where people who don't know internet things could get free email. I figured it's a good way to test the waters, I also had free email long before I had a domain... but over a decade later, we're actually building houses out of this duct tape? It's duct tape, it's useful, but it's still duct tape.

I don't mean this to blame the author. (Though them making another account with Google for private stuff made me despair)

My first thought was, if companies want to be persons, and do this to other persons, a fair response would actually be "Dear Google, stop existing. Please don't make another company, either." I know it's not realistic, not even desirable to me -- we don't even boycott really horrible actors on a large scale, so why ruin Google and all the lives that hang off of that. I don't believe in collective punishment under any circumstances, ever. But as a response to Google (et al.) "as a company", it would be fair -- and no need to tell them why, either.

Re: Google terminated our start-up Google Play Publisher Account

#67

Post by lern_too_spel » Sun, Dec 30, 2018, 2:09 PM UTC

n_e wrote: post #32

What I found the most infuriating is this: > We recommend that you use an alternative method for distributing your apps in the future. There is no reasonable alternative method for distributing commercial apps on android. The app store is a monopoly.

> There is no reasonable alternative method for distributing commercial apps on android.

How about your company's website?

Re: Google terminated our start-up Google Play Publisher Account

#68

Post by Dayshine » Sun, Dec 30, 2018, 2:11 PM UTC

yulaow wrote: post #4

Wait a second... Did I understand it bad or if my Google dev account gets banned I cannot even create a new dev account directly linked to my person for the rest of my life? What.

Further, does this mean once banned, I could maliciously join organisations to get them shut down?

Perhaps Pablo should get a job with a high profile but small on tech company (maybe a bank?) and watch Google change their policies immediately.

Re: Google terminated our start-up Google Play Publisher Account

#69

Post by PavlovsCat » Sun, Dec 30, 2018, 2:22 PM UTC

yholio wrote: post #49

athirnuaimi wrote: post #7

As someone who has built and published apps on both major platforms, this issue of not being able to speak to someone is a problem on the Apple platform as well (as on Googles). As mentioned in the article, it’s heart wrenching to receive an email saying there is a problem with your app and know that the app or the release you worked so hard on might not get published. Having a release rejected can also be as bad as…

The final decision to terminate is usually taken by a human, not an algorithm. However, that human is not allowed to speak to you because anything they say is a potential liability in court or in PR terms. Companies exist to produce profits for their owners. Without public regulation, you should not expect fair and faithful service. If you no longer represent a revenue opportunity - since they clearly decided just th…

I'd say companies exist to provide value to society, and profits are an incentive provided by said societies, which allows them to operate in the first place.

> The solution is often to try to align the incentives of the company with your own, with public shaming campaigns like this one.

Which is probably why it got flagged off the front page by people who won't say why they did that. They forget that the internet's ability to "route around problems" is really just a shadow of the ability of people and life in general to do that, and that trying to suppress local solutions just widens the area to be routed around.

Re: Google terminated our start-up Google Play Publisher Account

#70

Post by appleflaxen » Sun, Dec 30, 2018, 2:32 PM UTC

zenexer wrote: post #39

For those of you wondering, it appears that the company mentioned in the article, GreenLionSoft [1], develops apps that show public transportation schedules in Spain, at least as of 2017 [2]. Their Google Play page still exists in some places but has been cleared of all apps [3]. I can't find Pablo A. Martinez's personal developer account; the closest match is com.pablomartinez, which belongs (belonged?) to a law for…

> It'll make your case stronger

the case to whom? the primary message from the post is that there is likely no human being who will look at this again (and based on the robotic 24h + 1min timestamp on the email, the question is whether one ever did in the first place).