App developers no longer need to create quality apps to hit the App Store rankings after a viral photo circulating around the internet of what appears to be a Chinese App Store ranking manipulation farm.
The original copy of the photo was discovered on Weibo with a caption: "Hard-working App Store manipulation employee."
Tech in Asia also got a hold of the photo that has been viral around China, the photo shows woman sitting in front of over a hundred iPhone 5Cs. Apparently, the job of this Chinese woman is to download, install and uninstall specific apps over and over again to boost their App Store Rankings.This raises the discoverability level of the app and would prompt more people to download it, therefore making more money for the developers.
Reports describe the place as a get-away for App developers, where they can pay their people to artificially inflate and boost their rankings on the App Store according to iStyle News.
A photo in MyDrivers also showed a acreenshot of what seems like a price list for the service offered at the manipulation farm.
In another report from Tech in Asia, Apple is trying to stop PC-based iPhone emulation programs that were made for this purpose, also banning the applications that use them.
The search on Taobao, China for the 'App Store Ranking Manipulation farm', reveals dozens of vendors offering the same services. The prices they listed as one yuan but it's just a smokescreen to the real price negotiations that takes place through direct chat. Though Apple has been very disappointed on the manipulation of the app rankings, for local businessmen, this kind of business is definitely a money-maker.
However, the photos that were circling the Internet has not yet been confirmed by the authorities. It is not clear whether they are legit or not or what actions the government is planning to make.
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