Viral Photo Shows How Chinese Workers Are Used to Manipulate App Store Rankings

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Posted February 5, 2015 at 7:34pm by Shalom Levytam

Check out this photo that shows how Chinese workers are used to manipulate App Store rankings. The photo has apparently gone viral in China.

Huxiu reports that the photo was shared by a micro-blog today under the heading, "It's Hard Being a Top App Worker." The image shows a worker siting in front of hundreds of iPhones laid out on a rack that appears to have been specially designed for this purpose.

The exposé, shown in the picture, displays a 'Top App list worker' in their work place, which features a simple shelf containing hundreds of iPhone 5Cs. In a room filled with such workstations from one side to the other, mobile phone labour takes place at an industrial level. Simply put, a worker downloads (and deletes and downloads, etc.) an app to boost its rank on the App Store, calculated by how many times the app has been downloaded. One worker can operate as up to 100 unique users.

Accompany the photo on some sites is an alleged price list for boosting your app ranking. Getting into the top 10 free apps costs RMB 70,000 (US$11,200), and keeping it there will cost you another RMB 405,000 (US$65,000) per week. The third column is said to be the monthly fee. Negotiations take place over the QQ messaging service.

While Apple has taken steps to counter the manipulation of App Store rankings, it's quite difficult to identify manual downloads as being fake.

Take a look at the photo below...

Viral Photo Shows How Chinese Workers Are Used to Manipulate App Store Rankings

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iProService - February 5, 2015 at 11:29pm

Considering the amount of steps it takes to set up an iTunes account, this is quite a manipulative racket. Clearly someone figured out an impressive system to work around everything.

Daf - February 5, 2015 at 9:14pm

But atleast she got a job which is nice for her

Jon - February 5, 2015 at 7:50pm

iphones are built in sweat shops. the labor force is manipulated and abused. I agree the woman in the pic is cold. Clearly its more of a Freeze Shop than a Sweat Shop considering all the china bashing lately, isnt it ironic that Apple iPhones are made in China?

Ken - February 5, 2015 at 10:52pm

Made in China like everything else you mean?

Justin Credible - February 5, 2015 at 7:41pm

She looks like shes cold, working with a winter jacket and hand warmers. With all those devices running, you'd think she would be wearing a T-Shirt!

Tj Sepe - February 5, 2015 at 7:40pm

I like you Apple… But I don't like this! Better get on it

gamerscul9870 - February 5, 2015 at 8:54pm

And your point being? Get on that.