Lottery apps top App Store results - whatever is searched for

World
Europe

Users who searched applications by keyword in Apple's App Store - such as Baidu Map to Tencent Mail – were recommended unrelated lottery applications instead last Wednesday. The situation lasted from around midnight until 10 a.m.

Beijing Youth Daily Photo

A reporter from Beijing Youth Daily tested the system by searching “Xin”, which literally means “new” in China. The top seven applications in the search results were lottery applications.

This is not the first time App Store search results have been intentionally manipulated. Back to 2012, a corporation recruited a large number of people to download one application repeatedly, so as to “push” the application to the top of search results.

Beijing Youth Daily Photo

The reporter found that many people continue to offer the service on Taobao, China’s largest online shopping platform.

The price in 2012 for a top five result was 25,000 yuan (3,500 US dollars) but the cost can be much higher now and more categorized according to different ranks and different lists. A top 10 position in the paid application list can cost 200,000 yuan (29,000 US dollars). An extra 70,000 yuan (11,500 US dollars) would be needed if you wanted a place in top five.

But what does the money buy? The reporter contacted an operator who showed a successful case to him. On January 14, an application was successfully pushed up to 102 from 450 in the free application list.

CFP Photo

But the ranking only lasted two hours. One day later, the application was downgraded to its previous position, and dropped even lower than 450.

However, as long as the application's rank had initially been pushed up successfully, the corporation was not responsible for the later downgrade.

Staff from the App Store responded that users can report such applications to the customer service system. The applications will then be investigated and warned, or removed from the App Store.