The "sweeping list" behind the App ranking
Revealing the 200 million "Brush List" underground industry
In the fast-paced era, there are so many mobile apps that make it difficult for consumers to choose, and rankings have become an extremely important way to make a C debut.
In order to improve the ranking of apps, the underground industry chain of "swiping the list" has become a "make money" for many people.
After 80s, Jiang De (pseudonym) relied on helping the app to “swipe the list” and became a “successful person” with an annual income of more than 10 million yuan. In the end, he took risks and became an accomplice behind the illegal apps.
Jiang De, who graduated from junior high school, was originally in the business of reselling game coins and equipment. Later, the business was no longer as profitable as before. In 2013, he smelled "business opportunities" in the app "scaling".
App "swiping list" is similar to online e-commerce platform "swiping list". In order to improve the ranking of the software in the mobile application market, App developers use the operation of "swiping list" to make the software downloads in a short time. A kind of competitive method that rapidly increases the ranking within the company.
"Make money by downloading apps on mobile phones" actually means that the R&D company puts the app software to be promoted on some software platforms called "point wall", and releases download task orders every day. After individuals or studios receive the order, they download and try each time successfully. Even if an amount is completed within a few minutes, the R&D company will give the corresponding reward to the "point wall" platform, and individuals or studios who take orders from the platform can get a profit of 1 to 2 yuan.
The downloads of these apps that have been swiped on the list have surged in a short period of time, and their rankings in their official malls will rise rapidly. Some may even jump from a few hundred to the top ten or even the top three.
The higher the ranking, the easier the software will be searched by mobile phone users.
These mobile phone software R&D companies will spend huge sums of money to promote their products, thus spawning an underground industry chain of mobile phone software rankings.
At first, Jiang De bought 6 mobile phones and downloaded apps with a friend to make money.
After tasting the sweetness, he successively purchased more than 100 mobile phones and hired 12 employees. He set up studios in two towns in Ganyu District and Donghai County of Lianyungang City to "brush the list" for mobile apps in just two years It made a profit of more than 1 million yuan.
After learning about some industry insiders, Jiang De discovered that although it is profitable to do the manual "swiping the list" of the studio, it consumes a lot of manpower and time cost, so it is better to directly do the "point wall".
In the second half of 2015, he rented a company's "point wall" platform, and he was responsible for maintenance and operation.
In 2016 and 2017, he successively registered and established 3 network technology limited companies.
In order to seek greater profit margins, and also because of concerns that the rented "point wall" platform may no longer be authorized for use at any time, in March 2018, Jiang De "shifted" to Shenzhen and established an online company. It took a few months Developed its own "point wall" software platform.
Since the mobile app store’s review of mobile software is very strict and complicated, in order to allow the point wall software to quickly log in to the app store, Jiang De spent money to purchase a packaging software package under the name of "environmental protection", and successfully deceived the review system to put it on the app. Mall.
Then he spent tens of thousands of yuan to promote the "point wall" software.
In order to attract more users to register, they rented a special bus, drew banners and handed out flyers at the entrances of many university campuses across the country, wooed college students to register, and also started "just move your fingers for a few minutes to make money easily" Slogan.
As of the case, the registered users of the "point wall" software have reached more than 100,000.
In just a few years, Jiang De gradually developed an underground studio in northern Jiangsu into a professional and large-scale national company, and once entered the "top three" in the black industry chain of "brushing the list".
As more and more promotion businesses were undertaken, Jiang De also began to sink deeper and deeper. He found that behind the booming market of "sweeping the list" was driven by huge interest groups.
At the beginning of 2019, Su Moumou in the circle contacted Jiang De and said that there is a big customer named Tom in Cambodia. His company is responsible for making stock matching apps and wants to promote it in China.
The three people with their own plans hit it off. Tom is responsible for providing software materials overseas and making specific promotion requirements, Su Moumou is responsible for intermediary liaison, and Jiang De is responsible for promotion.
Since Tom’s software does not have the qualifications to be put on the App Store, Jiang De purchases software installation packages such as "stocks" and “futures” through software vendors, puts Tom’s software in a “legal” cloak, and puts it on the App Store After attracting users to register and recharge consumption in the software.
The trio were divided into 30% of the profits of Jiang De, Su Mo, and Tom 60%.
Since large amounts of funds are easily noticeable in the bank, they are all divided into cash transactions.
It was through the promotion and combined transportation of these illegal software that Jiang De made more than 30 million yuan in profit in less than two years.
According to the case-handling agency, Jiang De also signed promotion contracts with 4 companies suspected of illegal fund-raising and other financial crimes to download, promote and divert their App products, resulting in an illegal profit of more than 16 million yuan.
After verification by relevant departments, the above-mentioned four companies and apps were all filed and investigated by local public security agencies for suspected of illegally absorbing public deposits or fund-raising fraud.
During the six years from 2013 to 2019, Jiang De’s company used false rankings, false positive reviews, developing a "point wall" for business subcontracting, and joint transportation with mobile phone software companies, etc., to launch an application mall and upgrade mobile apps Ranking helps.
The case handling agency disclosed that members of the Jiang De gang knowing that the apps promoted may involve illegal and criminal activities such as lottery, pornography, gambling, finance, etc., they will not hesitate to touch the legal red line and provide them with packaging, shelves, advertising and other services. More than 50 million yuan in profit.
In early March of this year, the Public Security Bureau of Ganyu District, Lianyungang City, received a report and started investigating Jiang De’s company. In this major “sweeping the list” case, the people involved are not only in Beijing, Guangdong, Fujian and other provinces and cities, but also overseas. Personnel participation, the total amount involved is as high as 200 million yuan.
On May 9, the People's Procuratorate of Ganyu District decided to approve the arrest of the three main criminal suspects in the case.
On October 31, the Procuratorate prosecuted 12 criminal suspects for the crime of helping information network criminal activities.
Currently, the case is under further trial.
Lu Zhijian, Fan Weiyi, China Youth Daily, China Youth Daily reporter Li Chao Source: China Youth Daily