But you don't need 20-25k downloads simply to land in the top 100 pay apps. Getting into the top 100 pay apps is the hard part. Once you are in the top 100, the massive boost in visibility will propell most apps in an upwards trajectory that can sustain itself with legit downloads for quite some time, even with an average/mediocre app. Whatever these guys did to get their concentrated burst of downloads, I'm quite sure that the money they're making has more than paid for the costs.
I think if they can max out for a given hour that should propel them up quite a bit, just as a trending app. If Apple's ranking system sees a major push it's going to capitalize on that and shoot it up the ranks. Your theory makes perfect sense
Yeah I wonder how long Apple will let this run its course before they shut it down, I give those guys credit, however they hacked/abused the system it worked and they're going to make some good money off of it.
Yes, if the rankings take "hourly traffic" into consideration in any way - this would be much much easier to achieve However - I dont think the "self propelled" theory works too well here. Stealthbomber only got 9 reviews since it reached #1, so I dont think they made much money from this stunt. They'd need thousands of sales to cover the expense, but thousands of customers would leave a bit more reviews
This one is at least visible in some other countries as well... Though with the amount of games on iPad being much smaller - this shouldn't be all that too difficult
Great thread, this has been bugging the heck out of me as well. I think based on how quickly it appears, how quickly it has tapered off, and the number of reviews that are being left (almost none and universally poor), I can't see any possibility besides a mass purchase of their own game, and I suspect it is automated as well. The only headache would be setting up the original accounts, but then you just dump them in a database and let a program do the purchasing for you. In the great scheme of spending marketing dollars - 7k to appear in the top 10 is chump change when it's a guaranteed result. Looking at our own trends, the ranking algorithm changes you hour by hour, and you can bump immediately if you see a sales spike, so I don't think it would take very long to work. Other anecdotal stuff that I've heard from the freeapp<whatever> also show titles shooting from buried to top 10 in a matter of hours. Similarly, it wouldn't be hard to track your sales once you reach the top and slow down your purchasing to maintenance mode, basically making up the difference to keep your app up there. It also wouldn't be hard to have a program even learn these trends and taper purchasing appropriately. Actually, it kind of sounds like a fun algorithm to write. Hopefully Apple will detect and crack down on this. It's a bit less smarmy than the fake reviews, since they are at least spending money, but not by much. Edit: Also, seeing as how gifting apps doesn't affect your ranking, one could intuit that they are not in favor of people buying their ranking on the App Store.
Yeah not only for their own games, this is a very good business. I can foresee lots of games soon in queue of Jirbo's service as soon as they start accepting apps.
It's not all too surprising that someone is able to game the system this way. I just read an article in the NY Times about how spammers are paying next to nothing to workers in foreign countries to decipher captchas (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/26/technology/26captcha.html). It's just a short step to translate this into an app store scheme. Now Apple needs to figure out a way to prevent this.
Jirbo FAILS just like their cookie cutter games! They can manipulate the charts all they want. People know which games belong on the top.
I don't have that much faith in people. I remember when some glow-stick app was placed in the #1 spot by some freak iTunes screwup, and was still top ranked days later. Even the dev was shocked.
I think this is a big issue, not just of some sly people gaming the system, but the whole App store sales structure that has 90% of sales contained in the top ten charts, which only serves to encourage low pricing and schemes like this. I believe this is the reason Apple have hired Matt Casamassina, the editor from IGN. From his comments about the new role, it appears Apple may be leaning more toward quality 'picks' and less away from the charts, and maybe even some editorial context to organize the store. I'm excited to see what happens with it.
Is it really just 90% of sales in the top 10 charts? I'd have thought it was even more. iPad AppStore feels like an experiment in this direction. Apple takes a heavy hand steering device owners towards what Apple consider noteworthy, and there's no obvious way for users to even browse new releases. If an app didn't get hand picked by Apple and isn't keyword/search friendly, it's unlikely that people will stumble across it without advertising outside the AppStore. Search results are heavily biased towards more expensive apps. I don't know what's better selfishly, for Apple, or for customers. But I do wish Apple was more transparent about how AppStore mechanics worked, and how they'll work in the future. Flawed or not, I would put more trust in an AppStore whose rankings are based on objective criteria (i.e. download windows with public rankings) moreso than one that is tied to an editorial board.
Interesting; I hope he does make the system change for the better. At any rate, I think you guys have pretty much nailed what Jirbo is doing. Maybe we should collectively report this to Apple somehow? I know they are not that great with response, but it seems like this kind of abuse, especially if it becomes a "service" in the future, will majorly decrease the average quality of the App Store's "Top Apps"; I don't think they will like that very much. Therefore they might investigate this seriously.
Investigation? You've got my interest. I collected some facts already. If you're interested, here they are... First, here is a list of all apps available from Jirgo: http://ax.search.itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZSearch.woa/wa/search?entity=software&media=all&restrict=true&submit=seeAllLockups&term=jirbo Here are Jirbo's rankings from Topappcharts: http://www.topappcharts.com/search.php?string=Jirbo&show=search&price=any So, where do we start? Maybe at The Street: http://www.thestreet.com/story/10719624/massive-daily-ipad-app-downloads-for-social-gaming-company-jirbo-inc.html Jirbo points out to the AdColony: http://www.adcolony.com/ The Register has also something to say about Jirgo: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/07/16/app_store_allegations/ The article on Forbes.com involving Jirgo is quite interesting, too: http://www.forbes.com/2008/01/26/iphone-apple-developers-tech-wire-cx_ew_0128iphone.html And last but now least, even the iPhonefreakz care: http://iphonefreakz.com/2008/07/19/iphone-game-developer-jirbo-speaks-out/
I wouldn't sing and dance just yet. It doesn't sound like he wants to change the system, but rather to provide a filter based on his personal tastes. Great if you happen to have the same tastes as him and his team, not so much if you don't. Here's his quote: In a nutshell, I will be leading the charge for games on the App Store, so whether you browse through iTunes, iPhone, iPod touch or iPad, the games content you see will be handpicked and organized by me and my team, Mr. Casamassina said on his blog." Don't get me wrong, I do like the idea of better organizing AppStore content. The way keywords and categories are used is a bit wild west and could use some sorting out. I'd love to be able to able to browse for more eclectic things like retro arcade game ports.
dworld services has used this exploit before as well. simply mass buying your own apps will get you exposure and hopefully your app is appealing enough to lure real purchases. if apple removed refunds, this would be a great business practice... otherwise it should be banned.
No evidence has been presented to show that Jirbo have done anything wrong. I emailed them a couple of days ago & asked how they managed to achieve these download numbers. Their explanation was in-app advertising using their product, Adcolony incorporated in some of their 94 apps. I have no idea whether they were being entirely candid with me but I'm not prepared, at this stage, to make any assumptions about their integrity.
Actually I think the circumstantial evidence is overwhelmingly pointing toward them manipulating their rank through mass purchase. MikeSz_spokko pointed out the interesting clue: note how FEW reviews and ratings these apps received, despite being at or nearly at the top of the app store. Any app or game legitimately purchased by that many people will have tons of reviews and ratings pouring in daily. This is NOT the case if you've got a mass of office workers or an automated system making purchases for you. The downloads are probably never even installed on a device, just black-holed. Note that the "rate on delete" crowd alone would account for many hundreds of ratings. Even more bizarre and conspiracy theorist, but potentially close to the mark- perhaps Jirbo engineered these rankings (for Stealthbomber and Snot Rocket) and are claiming the results are from Adcolony to boost *Adcolonys* popularity. Jirbo owns Adcolony, so they stand to gain plenty by convincing people that you'll see "amazing results in 24 hours or less".
I think you're exactly on the right path. The adcolony webpage has all of their apps as case studies in success. "Look at how high we can make our own apps go with our own advertising... in our own apps!" So people that haven't given it much thought might want to try adcolony out themselves - making them the money they put out.
