I was just sent an unsolicited email from a firm offering to help me buy my way onto top lists. They have a service where a developer can pay them to have people buy your app en-mass and post fake user reviews. I won't mention this company by name, but I was a bit taken aback. I'm not surprised that this sort of thing goes on, but I'd assumed that discussions with PR firms that do this sort of thing always happened behind closed doors. To have a company come out in the open offering this type of transaction without any pretenses of being legitimate is pretty shocking.
I'm sure Apple is aware of this practice, and I'm sure if someone did take up their service then Apple would ban every itunes account associated with the firm, as well as the apps that used them. Plus, I think getting real people to buy your app with real reviews can go a lot quicker and cheaper. Right?
I heard from a games journalist this morning who seems to think that this goes on all the time, which is pretty saddening. I understand that you don't want to name & shame, but do you think you could at least PM me the name of the company. I really wouldn't want to be doing any sort of business with them.
I'm not going to find out, but suspect not. They have an active web site that looks like it's been running as a well-oiled machine for this very purpose.
This is a very dishonest practice, and I for one wish you would mention the company, but I understand if you don't. However, you would not be defaming them, just passing along information that was sent to you. It actually would be good for Apple to sign up with this firm and track how they do it, although I don't know if they have any mechanisms to stop such shenanigans. At the least, you should forward the email to Apple.
This kind of thing used to happen all the time in the days when record sales meant something. As in the old vinyl days - record companies would buy thousands of copies just to make an artist a 'success'. I'm not sure how you'd stop it, though you have to think it'd take someone a monumental amount of time and effort...
Indeed, and then the record authorities got wise and have sophisticated equipment that can track odd sales patterns. I heard a story about the chart compilation agency who tracked a band's manager driving across the UK buying 1 of each single format in each chart return shop, but no others. Unsurprisingly the single was disqualified from that week's chart.
What this company actually does is get people to buy apps, leave a review (good or bad) and then refunds them their money once the review has been verfied. It may be a distasteful way to get your app noticed but variations of this strategy have been used by marketing teams in many industries for many years. I'm sure Apple are aware of the company in question as they make no effort to hide their activities. However, I doubt that it breaches any rules as we're all free to give away our product if we choose and the site makes it pretty clear that the reviews left on iTunes don't have to be favourable, just helpful to the developer in some way. Yes, they do pay for reviews, but not necessarily fake ones. I just wish devs didn't feel the need to resort to these methods.
It's so sad to think that the AppStore's popularity have given birth to a lot of "small" and "shady" businesses like this. What's even sadder is that some devs are probably taking up the offer.
i keep forgetting their name, but they're relatively new, if we're talking about the same one. so far though they have not offered up any games i'd want to play, even for 'free'. i personally don't see anything wrong with this system. they're not telling you to leave any particular type of review, just A review. that's no different to me than the devs giving out codes here, in which many cases they actually DO ask for 4 or 5 star reviews...
Just out of curiousity: why not name the company? If what they're doing isn't secret, why are you keeping it a secret for them? The best way to get rid of these companies is to let everyone know who they are, ie. "name and shame".
Anyone who's curious can find them using google but I have taken the view that I'd rather not give them any free publicity.
