[HN Gopher] How to make $13M on the App Store
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       How to make $13M on the App Store
        
       Author : keleftheriou
       Score  : 51 points
       Date   : 2022-01-10 20:01 UTC (3 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (twitter.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (twitter.com)
        
       | evercast wrote:
       | Interestingly, this is not some random app, but something that
       | has been featured in Wired: https://www.wired.com/2015/09/turn-
       | handful-phones-speaker-sy...
       | 
       | This is their webpage: https://ampme.com/. It says (c)2019 Amp Me
       | Inc. which could mean it was not updated since then. This is also
       | when the app started charging money. Could it be that the authors
       | sold the app and the developer account to scammers?
       | 
       | Also, not sure how to treat the accusation about easy to
       | subscribe and hard to cancel. It seems the subscription can be
       | canceled in iOS like all other subscriptions?
       | 
       | The app is also in Google store.
        
         | keleftheriou wrote:
         | Yeah, they also raised $8M back in 2016:
         | https://techcrunch.com/2016/05/26/adding-a-youtube-integrati...
         | 
         | It seems that advertising didn't work out, so they turned to
         | in-app purchases in 2018 - roughly when the fake reviews also
         | started.
         | 
         | On the subscription, it's harder to cancel than it is to sign
         | up for, like all App Store IAP subscriptions. It really should
         | be possible to easily cancel from within the app itself rather
         | than going to the Settings app - something a lot of people
         | don't know how to do, unfortunately.
         | 
         | "It used to be a legit app":
         | https://twitter.com/lap_felix/status/1480631686413041666?s=2...
         | 
         | On the founder's previous company: "Wajam: From start-up to
         | massively-spread adware"
         | https://www.welivesecurity.com/2019/06/05/wajam-startup-mass...
        
       | AIorNot wrote:
       | Sigh -It's crazy that Apple spends so much time going after
       | individual app devs for minor regulations but tolerates such
       | egregious scams as this one..
        
         | livinglist wrote:
         | exactly...
        
       | dandotway wrote:
       | As long as Apple gets its 30% cut, why is Apple incentivized to
       | hire a bunch more staff with healthcare, vacation, and pension
       | benefits who are paid to crack down on this? "Dear AAPL
       | Shareholders, rejoice! We reduced our 30% cut of $10B per quarter
       | from garbage in the App Store by spending over $1B per quarter to
       | hire over 10,000 staff to eliminate these ill-gotten gains."
        
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       (page generated 2022-01-10 23:02 UTC)