[Journey] Building an iOS & Android App Empire

[meanyack]

Hey @nakamura,
It's now 5:40 in the morning and I almost read the whole thread. Congrats on your journey. It's really encouraging!

About me:
I've been developing games (alongside with other stuffs) for 5+ years.
I was able to grow my games virally on Tiktok and Shorts. I saw 25k installs in some days!

Then, one of the publishers approached and proposed to publish and I agreed.
I transferred the game and they worked on the marketing.

About a month ago, their iOS account was terminated with no appeal option. That was so harsh.
After 15 days later, this happened:


I'm not involved any fraud. Everything I've done is transparent on my social media, but they never listened my appeal.
On the contrary, this time Apple hit hard. They banned my account because of the the publisher's shady stuffs that I don't know and don't want to know.

I've been using this account for more than 5+ years and I'm so devastated.
I'm trying to open a new account but I they don't even let me open an account.
They show this generic error after phone verification

I hired a vps and installed my vpn
I used a service to get a phone number in my country but nothing worked.

A couple of questions:
- Can I use my name again for opening a new developer account?
- Should I buy a new mac and iphone too?
- I'm planning to buy another internet from isp and use it only for apple dev. Does it make sense?
- Can I use my name and company details? I'm a sole proprietor.

Any answers will help me very much.
Thanks!

 

[TMONEX]

Hey @nakamura,
It's now 5:40 in the morning and I almost read the whole thread. Congrats on your journey. It's really encouraging!

About me:
I've been developing games (alongside with other stuffs) for 5+ years.
I was able to grow my games virally on Tiktok and Shorts. I saw 25k installs in some days!

Then, one of the publishers approached and proposed to publish and I agreed.
I transferred the game and they worked on the marketing.

About a month ago, their iOS account was terminated with no appeal option. That was so harsh.
After 15 days later, this happened:
View attachment 471249

I'm not involved any fraud. Everything I've done is transparent on my social media, but they never listened my appeal.
On the contrary, this time Apple hit hard. They banned my account because of the the publisher's shady stuffs that I don't know and don't want to know.

I've been using this account for more than 5+ years and I'm so devastated.
I'm trying to open a new account but I they don't even let me open an account.
They show this generic error after phone verification
View attachment 471250
I hired a vps and installed my vpn
I used a service to get a phone number in my country but nothing worked.

A couple of questions:
- Can I use my name again for opening a new developer account?
- Should I buy a new mac and iphone too?
- I'm planning to buy another internet from isp and use it only for apple dev. Does it make sense?
- Can I use my name and company details? I'm a sole proprietor.

Any answers will help me very much.
Thanks!

Oh my goodness....to say I have been receiving this requests so often lately.

So this is another kind of way people do shady stuff with the apps they are trying to publish.


Sorry about your account man. I hope someone will help you out

 

[nakamura]

Hey @nakamura,
It's now 5:40 in the morning and I almost read the whole thread. Congrats on your journey. It's really encouraging!

About me:
I've been developing games (alongside with other stuffs) for 5+ years.
I was able to grow my games virally on Tiktok and Shorts. I saw 25k installs in some days!

Then, one of the publishers approached and proposed to publish and I agreed.
I transferred the game and they worked on the marketing.

About a month ago, their iOS account was terminated with no appeal option. That was so harsh.
After 15 days later, this happened:
View attachment 471249

I'm not involved any fraud. Everything I've done is transparent on my social media, but they never listened my appeal.
On the contrary, this time Apple hit hard. They banned my account because of the the publisher's shady stuffs that I don't know and don't want to know.

I've been using this account for more than 5+ years and I'm so devastated.
I'm trying to open a new account but I they don't even let me open an account.
They show this generic error after phone verification
View attachment 471250
I hired a vps and installed my vpn
I used a service to get a phone number in my country but nothing worked.

A couple of questions:
- Can I use my name again for opening a new developer account?
- Should I buy a new mac and iphone too?
- I'm planning to buy another internet from isp and use it only for apple dev. Does it make sense?
- Can I use my name and company details? I'm a sole proprietor.

Any answers will help me very much.
Thanks!

Oh mate, thats crazy work. Sorry this happened to you.

They suddenly sent you this termination notice without calling you or anything like this? Have you tried posting on the Apple Developer Forum?

Here is one thing that I really noticed about Apple. They DO KNOW whats going on. Once I made a post on the Apple Developer Forum regarding a review and a few hours later someone from Apple tried to call me on my phone number. So these guys definitely do communicate with each other. There are definitely humans (unlike Google Play) that make these decisions and work behind the scenes and these people do communicate about your problems.

Your best bet is to request a call. Make a post on the Apple Developer Forum and explain everything very carefully. Most importantly, back up your claims by showing screenshots of how these guys approached you, transactions, etc.

This above would be my first approach. Try to save it and reinstate it. I have no idea how bad of a situation this is and what these guys did to mess their account and yours up.

Also, you are probably not able to make a new individual account under your name. Unlike Google, Apple is MANUALLY checking and approving these developer accounts. In my case, I always had to call with them and verify myself.

So in this case, what you can do is: Register a company in your country (or somewhere else) and make a corporate Apple Developer account under the companies name. Of course, you have to use a different Apple ID, etc. different phone number, company address, etc.

Also, this is a lesson for everyone on here: DO NOT trust anyone with your Google Play or Apple Developer account. Do not fall for any of this shit. I got countless emails. For Google Play even more, almost daily. Whenever these people try to use you or your account, it is because by themselves they can't do it cuz they are already cooked.

 

[nakamura]

Guys, it has been already 5 times an Acquistion company emailed me, they want to buy one of my apps which brings me a lot of money. This app is only available on iOS right now. I am planning to publish it also for Web and Google play tho in this month. They want to call with me.

If I sell, I could probably make 6 figures. (no idea about their offer tho, could be possible they want to offer me WAY LESS like 50k or 60k)

So far I didn't reply to them at all. But there are definitely a legit company. I checked their website, linkedin, etc.

If I would sell my app, I would suddenly be able to spend a lot more money for marketing. Could reinvest the money for other stuff as well. Would be a huge boost for cashflow in general.

Would you guys do this?

 

[meanyack]

They suddenly sent you this termination notice without calling you or anything like this? Have you tried posting on the Apple Developer Forum?

Yes, without prior warning whatsoever. This was shocking as hell.
I believe the reason was the in-game user generated that might contain copyrighted materials. I didn't do anything deceiving and it passed reviews all the time. I still not 100% sure if this is the reason.

Your best bet is to request a call. Make a post on the Apple Developer Forum and explain everything very carefully. Most importantly, back up your claims by showing screenshots of how these guys approached you, transactions, etc.

I can't request a call, the option is disabled. I will try to appeal again. I saw sometimes apple says "the decision is final, do not appeal" but it's not written in my message.

This time I will use a plain and regretful language, explaining all the things that apple might not like. Maybe I beg lol
Wish me luck bro!
I'm planning a new app with a huge gamification aspect and aiming millions of users with a high engagement time.

PS: I learned a lot in this process. Apple or Google are no joke. Even a small bit of workaround can trigger a suspension.
I saw someone's account is closed because of repeated reviews and I knew it would happen in the first message. They suspect everything. (Some say they watch your ads and read your social media posts)

 

[WilsonNox]

Guys, it has been already 5 times an Acquistion company emailed me, they want to buy one of my apps which brings me a lot of money. This app is only available on iOS right now. I am planning to publish it also for Web and Google play tho in this month. They want to call with me.

If I sell, I could probably make 6 figures. (no idea about their offer tho, could be possible they want to offer me WAY LESS like 50k or 60k)

So far I didn't reply to them at all. But there are definitely a legit company. I checked their website, linkedin, etc.

If I would sell my app, I would suddenly be able to spend a lot more money for marketing. Could reinvest the money for other stuff as well. Would be a huge boost for cashflow in general.

Would you guys do this?

I’ve received a lot of those over the years.
They’re going to ask to see your app’s data to determine how much it’s worth and whether it’s a good investment for them.

If it’s a trusted company, I’d say you can share your data and let them evaluate the offer. In my experience, they usually lowball the value of the app, but it’s worth giving it a try.

With exact numbers in hand, you can run the math yourself and see if it’s really worth it.
Personally, I’d only do it if it’s truly worth it financially.

 

[conexur]

Yes but also it's very easy for someone make a "credible" brand and ask for app data, then use that data to start a new app, be careful.

 

[nakamura]

I’ve received a lot of those over the years.
They’re going to ask to see your app’s data to determine how much it’s worth and whether it’s a good investment for them.

If it’s a trusted company, I’d say you can share your data and let them evaluate the offer. In my experience, they usually lowball the value of the app, but it’s worth giving it a try.

With exact numbers in hand, you can run the math yourself and see if it’s really worth it.
Personally, I’d only do it if it’s truly worth it financially.

I will have a call with them on Wednesday. I also think they will give a lowball offer. I give it a try tho, if I dont like the offer I will just reject.

 

[WilsonNox]

Does anyone have this insight into Google Play Store localization?

Do you typically translate your Play Store listing for all countries?
I’m concerned that literal AI translations might miss the keywords that drive organic downloads.
Do you research keywords separately for each market? Is that worth it?

 

[WesternPixels]

Good luck, stay consistent!

 

[nakamura]

Does anyone have this insight into Google Play Store localization?

Do you typically translate your Play Store listing for all countries?
I’m concerned that literal AI translations might miss the keywords that drive organic downloads.
Do you research keywords separately for each market? Is that worth it?

Yes, I usually translate it into all languages, but some languages I skip entirely like Zulu, Malay, etc.

I translate the app store descriptions with Google Gemini and also give it a keyword list and tell it to integrate the keywords and also it should make sure to use these keywords in the translations and also translate some of the keywords.

Most important are the keywords in the title and subtitle/short description.

Good luck, stay consistent!

Thanks, I give my best


Update:

These days I start to get IAPs from Google Play. After the apps got published, I didn't really get organic traffic. I didn't buy any installs / paid ads for Android apps as well. But now it seems like some keywords get indexed and traffic rolls in.

 

[drdearmy]

very intereting journey good luck.. will follow

 

[osxxen]

Awesome thread. I come from the old school SEO affiliate crowd, sold my last website just a little bit before Google shut the puppy down. My vote: negotiate a fair price (from what I can tell it's a 30x monthly multiple) and sell, and then use the money to double down on scaling. It's amazing how much you can do with a strategic investment.

 

[Jerichomiles]

This is something you really have to test out.

Usually, users from Apple Search ads tend to have more buying intentions, means they are more likely to to do IAPs. However, I found the cost per install on Apple Search Ads quite high.

Depending on your app and niche, I would recommend either Meta Ads (if your app has a viral effect or can have strong visual effects) or Google Ads.

Also, if you do Meta Ads or also Google Ads, the actual number of installs you see on Google Ads/Meta is mostly not correct. You will have to get the actual number on App Store Connect Analytics.

One more thing: On App Store Connect Analytics you can also see how much money you earned from the Meta / Google ads.

So are you still using Apple search ads and do you find them still as effective? Also did you run a keyword discovery campaign or did you find your keywords using some other method?

 

[DeFiNFT1]

do you know any tools similar to sensortower that are free to show app analytics ?

 

[nakamura]

do you know any tools similar to sensortower that are free to show app analytics ?

No, but many of these tools offer a free trial. So you can use them for 7 days, then make a new account or move to another tool and make a research there. Personally I dont like to spend hundreds of dollars for these tools as well, even tho they are incredibly helpful if you know how to use them in the right now.

Update:

Earnings are still all the same. I reduced ad spending tho. Some Android apps started making IAP money (still far less than iOS apps).

Right now I am working on making my winning apps multiplatform. I basically reverse engineer them in Flutter so I can publish them on Android and also on Web. I registered a few pretty good domains.

Also worth mentioning: Since the release of iOS 26 it seems like the iOS App Store went through some algo changes. I suddenly see a lot of random traffic, like I get IAP from countries like Turkey, Greece, Columbia, etc. that I normally don't target at all.

 

[meanyack]

This time I will use a plain and regretful language, explaining all the things that apple might not like. Maybe I beg lol
Wish me luck bro!
I'm planning a new app with a huge gamification aspect and aiming millions of users with a high engagement time.

Update on my end: I appealed after every rejection, but they kept responding with the same message. I'm 1000% sure they have a bot responding the same message every time. I still keep appealing regardless of the outcome.

I bought
- a mac mini ($635)
- a used iphone 7+ from a non-developer ($75)
- a new mobile number ($25)
Total cost $735 + ($25 for apple developer account. It's cheap in my local currency)

I opened a new icloud account behalf of my wife. I used the phone and mac a few days (not sure if warm up is required), then I opened an apple developer account.
I used a credit card to pay from my wife's card, but it didn't work. Fkin Apple doesn't accept all the cards, so I asked my father-in-law. It is accepted. After a few hours I received "Welcome to Apple Developer Program" email.

Then I submitted a document for approval yesterday. I'm waiting for the approval.
In the meantime, I opened a google play developer account too. I don't need now, but it's nice to have. The payment is approved, the country of residence is approved too. The thing that sucks is I need 12-15 testers for an app, but I think it's not that difficult. I can promote my next app on tiktok and I believe I can find testers easily.

Next steps,
After I got approval on iOS, I will upload a completely different app (A game I can build in a few days in Unity) with no IAPs and Ads so I can make sure everything goes smoothly. (7-10 days for development + approval)
After the app is approved, I will add a subscription and Ads (AFAIK) first app with payments takes much time to get approval. (Another 7-10 days)
Finally, I will change my terminated app's source code drastically:
- remove ad library and replace with another one
- publisher's libraries
- a new UI library that will also change the binary a lot
- migrate to new Unity version
- change the compression (this is specific to unity) It will change the data folder drastically

I'm hoping to NOT SEE this error:

We noticed your app shares a similar binary, metadata, and/or concept as apps previously submitted by a terminated Apple Developer Program account​

My games used to make close to $4000, so I hope I can get to that point again soon!

 

[Appfast]

Any recent update? How is your project going? Waiting for update and wish to see your app. I want learn some experience

 

[nakamura]

Any recent update? How is your project going? Waiting for update and wish to see your app. I want learn some experience

Thanks! Working on a lot of new projects but right now what I am mostly doing is reverse engineering my winning apps for Android and Web.

So I don' t want to miss out on the Google Play traffic and since I also got SEO skills I also want to get web traffic. Create a website / landing page and adjust my Flutter app in a way users can use it for Web.

So right now I do this stuff.

After this I will try to take on more advanced AI apps and then I will apply to incubators of the government that my company is registered in (Hong Kong).


Regarding the acquisition of one of my apps. When I gave them a lot of my apps data I realized how much money I actually spend on user acquisition and how ineffective it seems. So I will have to find out the user acquisiton part and thats where reels and tiktok will come into play. I want to start doing it and also try influencer marketing next month.

 

[nakamura]

Update:

I mentioned to you guys before that I got contacted regarding selling one of my apps.

I signed an NDA and I can't get into details, but BHW is fam and my name on here is Nakamura, so I guess I am safe.

They offered me a sum of around 50k USD. Right now I am in talk with my co-workers Claude, Gemini and ChatGPT to discuss how much I should ask for return. I have never negotiated an app price before and I never sold one before as well. In this regard I am an absolute newbie.

I am seriously thinking about selling the app because it would give me and the cashflow such a big boost.