[Journey] Building an iOS & Android App Empire

[X0t0]

Hello, any updates about the FAN Bidding thing for new apps in Android , if you want drop me a pm to share the knowledge between us, we're in the same path i'm in the same earning as you

 

[nakamura]

Btw. something incredibly ridiculous happened again:

Google terminated the developer account of my company.

The account got two "rejections" before. The first time there was a symbol on one of the screenshots (an empty wine bottle in a neon-icon style). Second time because there was a typo in one of the descriptions. I am not kidding you, they rejected the app because of a typo, but this was not a problem, because I just fixed the typo and the problem was solved.

Then I had a removal yesterday. They removed my app, because there was a mistake in the Chinese translation of the app title.

Interesting: They first terminated the account and one hour later I received the email of my app being removed. Funny, huh?

Now it is extremely important to know: According to Google "Rejections" and "Removals" are NOT having any impact on the stand of the developer account. This means, what they did was actually against their own policy.

Rejections

• Don't impact the standing of your Google Play Developer account.
• If an update to an existing app is rejected, the version published prior to the update will still be available on Google Play.

Note: Until a policy violation has been fixed, don't republish a rejected app.

Removals

• Don't immediately impact the standing of your Google Play Developer account, although multiple removals may result in a suspension.
• Once your app is removed, the published version of your app won't be available on Google Play until a compliant update is submitted.
• Your users, statistics, and ratings will be retained once you submit a compliant update for a removed app.
• Your subscribers will have their future subscriptions canceled. Past subscriptions will not be refunded.

Note: Until a policy violation has been fixed, don't republish a removed app.

Source: https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/2477981?hl=en


So my app had two rather ridiculous rejections (typo and icon in one of the screenshots) and one ridiculous removal (mistake in the Chinese translation of the app title).

I NEVER got any app suspended or anything like this. So according to their own policies above, they shouldn't have terminated my account.

Of course, I sent an appeal. Again, this is the developer account of my company, which is fully verified on Google, Adsense, Admob, Google Cloud, Adwords and Google Play.

So, lets see how this works out. If they won't reinstate the developer account I am going to contact some journalists, YouTubers and so on. I am sick and tired of this shit. Something has to change on Google Play. The way they are treating developers and start-ups is the worst ever.

 

[blackengine]

Btw. something incredibly ridiculous happened again:

Google terminated the developer account of my company.

The account got two "rejections" before. The first time there was a symbol on one of the screenshots (an empty wine bottle in a neon-icon style). Second time because there was a typo in one of the descriptions. I am not kidding you, they rejected the app because of a typo, but this was not a problem, because I just fixed the typo and the problem was solved.

Then I had a removal yesterday. They removed my app, because there was a mistake in the Chinese translation of the app title.

Interesting: They first terminated the account and one hour later I received the email of my app being removed. Funny, huh?

Now it is extremely important to know: According to Google "Rejections" and "Removals" are NOT having any impact on the stand of the developer account. This means, what they did was actually against their own policy.





Source: https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/2477981?hl=en


So my app had two rather ridiculous rejections (typo and icon in one of the screenshots) and one ridiculous removal (mistake in the Chinese translation of the app title).

I NEVER got any app suspended or anything like this. So according to their own policies above, they shouldn't have terminated my account.

Of course, I sent an appeal. Again, this is the developer account of my company, which is fully verified on Google, Adsense, Admob, Google Cloud, Adwords and Google Play.

So, lets see how this works out. If they won't reinstate the developer account I am going to contact some journalists, YouTubers and so on. I am sick and tired of this shit. Something has to change on Google Play. The way they are treating developers and start-ups is the worst ever.

that is so scary!

did you access the google developer account with RDP ?

 

[nakamura]

that is so scary!

did you access the google developer account with RDP ?

Nope, but even then, it shouldn't have any impact on the account, because there is a difference between a personal account and an account which is owned by legitimate business. Its an own legal entity.

Google said in the terminating email it is because of "multiple strikes" - I didn't have a single strike (according to their own definition and policies) tho. According to them a strike is when your app is getting suspended. I never got any app suspended.

 

[callahanCZ]

Btw. something incredibly ridiculous happened again:

Google terminated the developer account of my company.

The account got two "rejections" before. The first time there was a symbol on one of the screenshots (an empty wine bottle in a neon-icon style). Second time because there was a typo in one of the descriptions. I am not kidding you, they rejected the app because of a typo, but this was not a problem, because I just fixed the typo and the problem was solved.

Then I had a removal yesterday. They removed my app, because there was a mistake in the Chinese translation of the app title.

Interesting: They first terminated the account and one hour later I received the email of my app being removed. Funny, huh?

Now it is extremely important to know: According to Google "Rejections" and "Removals" are NOT having any impact on the stand of the developer account. This means, what they did was actually against their own policy.





Source: https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/2477981?hl=en


So my app had two rather ridiculous rejections (typo and icon in one of the screenshots) and one ridiculous removal (mistake in the Chinese translation of the app title).

I NEVER got any app suspended or anything like this. So according to their own policies above, they shouldn't have terminated my account.

Of course, I sent an appeal. Again, this is the developer account of my company, which is fully verified on Google, Adsense, Admob, Google Cloud, Adwords and Google Play.

So, lets see how this works out. If they won't reinstate the developer account I am going to contact some journalists, YouTubers and so on. I am sick and tired of this shit. Something has to change on Google Play. The way they are treating developers and start-ups is the worst ever.

Its sad but contacting journalists and YouTubers will be just wasting of your time, it will change nothing.

 

[nakamura]

Its sad but contacting journalists and YouTubers will be just wasting of your time, it will change nothing.

Lets see. European Union already changed laws because of this. Now Google Adsense/Admob still has to pay webmasters/developers even after their account got terminated. Also, Google is not allowed anymore to directly terminate accounts.

The whole problem I have with Google is: They are doing whatever want. They easily remove/suspend your apps because of ridiculous reasons and additionally to that they give you a death sentence by giving you a freaking lifetime ban.

Imagine you jaywalk at night and because of this you get a prison sentence for life. Kinda ridiculous, isn't it?

 

[randomCitizen03]

Lets see. European Union already changed laws because of this. Now Google Adsense/Admob still has to pay webmasters/developers even after their account got terminated. Also, Google is not allowed anymore to directly terminate accounts.

The whole problem I have with Google is: They are doing whatever want. They easily remove/suspend your apps because of ridiculous reasons and additionally to that they give you a death sentence by giving you a freaking lifetime ban.

Imagine you jaywalk at night and because of this you get a prison sentence for life. Kinda ridiculous, isn't it?

they are doing it because they can afford it, you should always have a plan B. I know some people who couldn't migrate to other ads networks and stay profitable so they just stopped reskinning apps alltogether. I think you should try to use multiple stores maybe try to target chinese markets more. What country are you from btw? are you from the EU?

 

[randomCitizen03]

I think they know about your other accounts, that's where the "multiple violations" reason comes from. Even though they are supposed to go put "multiple accounts" but it's close enough I guess. What makes you think there is a difference between a company account and a personal account though? I mean how do you even differentiate between the two when creating your developer account?

 

[nakamura]

I think they know about your other accounts, that's where the "multiple violations" reason comes from. Even though they are supposed to go put "multiple accounts" but it's close enough I guess. What makes you think there is a difference between a company account and a personal account though? I mean how do you even differentiate between the two when creating your developer account?

You can sign up for a personal or a company account. You can verify your account as a company account in the Google Play Store. Account trust is much higher. Example: Apps and updates just take several hours to be published instead of 4-7 days with a personal account.

And yes, there is a difference. Imagine an employee of a tech company like Tinder, Supercell or also smaller companies would create multiple accounts by himself at home, then he would go to work and log in from the same computer. Do you think Google would be allowed to terminate Tinder, Supercells, etc. accounts? Absolutely not.

"you should have a plan B" - Google Play is a monopoly. What is your plan B? Only publish on the Samsung Galaxy Store? No one cares about them. There can not be a plan B because there is only Google Play. You say "They can afford it" well, lets see. I don't think so. They are a company and they have to play after the rules as well.

Btw. the accounts I created personally, got nothing to do with the company account and according to Google's email, they are also not the reason for termination.

The reason for termination are "multiple strikes", which is simply not true, but hey, I am not wondering anything.

Seriously, who is watching the watchmen? Who are these guys who are making the decisions to take down your app? Wanna know something interesting? They FIRST terminated the account and more than one hour later I got the email that one of my apps got removed. That is something very sketchy, don't you think? Imagine being arrested and given a life sentence and one hour later you committed the crime.

Not only this, according to Google's own policies, they shouldn't have terminate the account. They say "multiple strike", but I didn't get a single one. They want us to play after the policies, but how about they keep their own policies in mind? In the EU, I could sue the shit out of them for these bad practices...and believe me...the EU does hate Google and Facebook.

But I made the company in Hong Kong and therefore I would have to sue them in Hong Kong. I am a german citizen tho, but you already see: There is a difference between a personal and a company account. The company account is a legal entity itself. They didn't delete MY account, they deleted the companies account.

 

[WarlordYT]

Not only this, according to Google's own policies, they shouldn't have terminate the account. They say "multiple strike", but I didn't get a single one. They want us to play after the policies, but how about they keep their own policies in mind? In the EU, I could sue the shit out of them for these bad practices...and believe me...the EU does hate Google and Facebook.

arent we supposed to pay 220M euro fine that france gave to Gugle , they simply ban lot of admob and google play and adsense and withold all payments and guesss what no one is there
to question them FU** Gugal employee if u are reading this forum

 

[nakamura]

arent we supposed to pay 220M euro fine that france gave to Gugle , they simply ban lot of admob and google play and adsense and withold all payments and guesss what no one is there
to question them FU** Gugal employee if u are reading this forum

It is just a huge problem how Google treats its content creator and developer. This whole "you are banned for life" is just the biggest fraud ever. This company is a monopoly and they have absolutely no responsibility or whatsoever.

By the way: Google actually banned my german Adsense account two month ago and guess what? They have to pay me. They even wrote it on their termination email.

The problem I have is: I don't really wanna sound like I am whining or complaining, but it is absolutely incredible how Google handling this. Also, this whole "guilt by association" so that your friend, neighbor or anyone around you had a Admob/Adsense/Play account which got terminated and because of this yours gets terminated as well. It is crazy. Imagine you are living in an apartment complex and everyone in this apartment complex gets arrested for murder, because you live in the same building and police will say "yeah, you are associated to the murder because you are living in the same building so you get prison for life" This is what is happening with Google. You just need to be around someone, in the same WiFi, logged in from the same computer or whatever and they might ban you for life, if they want to. In the moment you log into the same Wifi with a guy who previously got banned, you take your account at a risk and they can do whatever they want.

People can say about Apple whatever they want. About their products or pricing, but Apple is actually supporting the developers. You have actual humans you can talk to. It is the opposite of what Google is doing.

For every developer on here, and I guess I will open a separate thread or make a separate post for this anytime soon, I highly recommend you to stay away from Google as much as you can. For example I am using Facebook Audience Network. Yes, the fill rate is lower and the eCPM is not as high, but you can be fucking sure that they will pay you. You can be sure they are not going to ban you for any ridiculous reason. If you got many users, simply use mediation such as Appodeal and set up a waterfall strategy with many different ad networks such as: Facebook Audience Network, Unity Ads, Vungle and Applovin. In this way you will earn the most possible money, because it will only show the ads with the highest bid.

 

[cooledhead]

I noticed you never mention to apply to the get featured in the https://developer.apple.com/app-store/discoverability/n. Is it bad?

(In case you don't know what i'm talking about, check the apple link I added above or google get featured in the app store. )

 

[randomCitizen03]

It is just a huge problem how Google treats its content creator and developer. This whole "you are banned for life" is just the biggest fraud ever. This company is a monopoly and they have absolutely no responsibility or whatsoever.

By the way: Google actually banned my german Adsense account two month ago and guess what? They have to pay me. They even wrote it on their termination email.

The problem I have is: I don't really wanna sound like I am whining or complaining, but it is absolutely incredible how Google handling this. Also, this whole "guilt by association" so that your friend, neighbor or anyone around you had a Admob/Adsense/Play account which got terminated and because of this yours gets terminated as well. It is crazy. Imagine you are living in an apartment complex and everyone in this apartment complex gets arrested for murder, because you live in the same building and police will say "yeah, you are associated to the murder because you are living in the same building so you get prison for life" This is what is happening with Google. You just need to be around someone, in the same WiFi, logged in from the same computer or whatever and they might ban you for life, if they want to. In the moment you log into the same Wifi with a guy who previously got banned, you take your account at a risk and they can do whatever they want.

People can say about Apple whatever they want. About their products or pricing, but Apple is actually supporting the developers. You have actual humans you can talk to. It is the opposite of what Google is doing.

For every developer on here, and I guess I will open a separate thread or make a separate post for this anytime soon, I highly recommend you to stay away from Google as much as you can. For example I am using Facebook Audience Network. Yes, the fill rate is lower and the eCPM is not as high, but you can be fucking sure that they will pay you. You can be sure they are not going to ban you for any ridiculous reason. If you got many users, simply use mediation such as Appodeal and set up a waterfall strategy with many different ad networks such as: Facebook Audience Network, Unity Ads, Vungle and Applovin. In this way you will earn the most possible money, because it will only show the ads with the highest bid.

One last question german hans bro, what countries should I black list besides india, I feel like I should hide my apps in indonesia too since this one random guy who's allegedly from indonesia keeps half-ass reverse engineering my apps. And the profit lost isn't worth keeping it visible there.

 

[nakamura]

One last question german hans bro, what countries should I black list besides india, I feel like I should hide my apps in indonesia too since this one random guy who's allegedly from indonesia keeps half-ass reverse engineering my apps. And the profit lost isn't worth keeping it visible there.

Well, it really depends. I blocked India, Pakistan, Thailand, Cambodia, Myanmar, Malaysia, Indonesia, Morocco, Tunisia, Nepal Philippines. And just be very clear about this: I don't have anything against those countries (living in Thailand myself most of the time). Its just in these countries there is almost no real law enforcement. They can just copy or damage your app or your business by some blackhat techniques like mass reporting or mass clicking on ads, so advertiser limits or suspends you. In Germany, I could figure out who it was and sue the shit out of them, in these countries I can not. Also, I have noticed a tremendous change since I have blocked these countries. Some of my apps haven't (!) been suspended since then.

 

[nakamura]

Update:

It has been 14 days and believe it or not, but Google hasn't answered the appeal yet. I really have no idea what's going on in their mind. It seems no one is responsible.

What I have done so far?
- Contacted a lawyer who told me I could sue them and high likely win the case or at least get the account back
- Contacted Google on social media platforms and they also replied to me. One woman told me she saw the appeal and they take a look into it. It has been 7 days and nothing happened.
- Contacted some other guys who are Android developers and one of them wrote an article about it in his blog, which got a lot of views, shares, etc. already

Whats next?
- I will write another appeal (I just wrote one so far, one hour after I saw the termination email)
- I will contact the responsible Google employees on LinkedIn
- If nothing helps, I am going to sue them.

 

[randomCitizen03]

Update:

It has been 14 days and believe it or not, but Google hasn't answered the appeal yet. I really have no idea what's going on in their mind. It seems no one is responsible.

What I have done so far?
- Contacted a lawyer who told me I could sue them and high likely win the case or at least get the account back
- Contacted Google on social media platforms and they also replied to me. One woman told me she saw the appeal and they take a look into it. It has been 7 days and nothing happened.
- Contacted some other guys who are Android developers and one of them wrote an article about it in his blog, which got a lot of views, shares, etc. already

Whats next?
- I will write another appeal (I just wrote one so far, one hour after I saw the termination email)
- I will contact the responsible Google employees on LinkedIn
- If nothing helps, I am going to sue them.

I hope you sue them anyway, this has gone too far they can't keep getting away with this. Google is completely aware of what it is doing, they make billions of dollars in foreign countries and pay less taxes than local companies and they still pull these kinds of tricks on startup developers. It's a monopoly that only the law can fight. I hear France keeps giving them 500mil$ fines whenever they get the chance XD.

 

[randomCitizen03]

Update:

It has been 14 days and believe it or not, but Google hasn't answered the appeal yet. I really have no idea what's going on in their mind. It seems no one is responsible.

What I have done so far?
- Contacted a lawyer who told me I could sue them and high likely win the case or at least get the account back
- Contacted Google on social media platforms and they also replied to me. One woman told me she saw the appeal and they take a look into it. It has been 7 days and nothing happened.
- Contacted some other guys who are Android developers and one of them wrote an article about it in his blog, which got a lot of views, shares, etc. already

Whats next?
- I will write another appeal (I just wrote one so far, one hour after I saw the termination email)
- I will contact the responsible Google employees on LinkedIn
- If nothing helps, I am going to sue them.

How do you keep track of your apps rank in different countries and overall app performance? do you use third-party websites or just use the play console? And what are some of the ways you improve the ASO of your apps?

 

[denis254]

@nakamura looking solid bro keep going!

Is there anyway we can create multiple Google Play Developer accounts?

My first account was suspended and I’m trying to create new ones so if an account gets banned, I don’t lose everything.. but couldn’t find a way so far

Did you found anyway bro?

 

[crnack]

I have a sort off-topic question.
Are you from Germany?
Is this business of German writers in your profile link run by you?
It sounds terrible to set anything google related as the main source of income.

 

[cooledhead]

I have a sort off-topic question.
Are you from Germany?
Is this business of German writers in your profile link run by you?
It sounds terrible to set anything google related as the main source of income.

he already said that he is half thai half german and is currently in Germany but regularly spends time with his parents in Thailand.

@nakamura
did you ever manage to get featured on the appstore?