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AppGratis: We've never used bot farms or 'anything shady'

Growth has been organic, says Dawlat

AppGratis: We've never used bot farms or 'anything shady'

App discovery platform AppGratis has dismissed claims it uses bot farms to push games up the download charts, stating that it has "never done anything shady" to grow its business.

In a blog post published weeks after Apple removed AppGratis from the App Store for violating its rules, CEO Simon Dawlat claimed said the accusations that bot farms had been employed were made by "one single person" who sold the story to TechCrunch.

One source

"TechCrunch bought the story and published it," details Dawlat in the post.

"It started spreading. Our lawyers acted rapidly and obtained a formal and written apology letter. As stated before, we have never done anything shady to grow, and we will always be able to bring proof of that."

Dawlat goes on to detail the growth of the company from an initial app recommendation list sent out to friends to the platform it is today, recently boosted by a series A investment round of $13.5 million.

"And as I stated before, we're just getting started," continues Dawlat.

No gaming

He adds that the company's main source of revenue is from advertisers with freemium apps, and also dismisses the idea that AppGratis "games" the App Store.

"We have never based our business on ranking exposure, because we've always expected Apple to chime in at some point and change that," he concludes.

"We have always based our business on solving the app discovery needs that consumers have. Some people have a very moral approach to this, but at the end of the day, all we do is simplify discovery for our users...and we send the App Store around 300 million visits per year."

The news comes days after Dawlat lifted the lid on a user petition set up by AppGratis to challenge Apple's decision to pull the app to PocketGamer.biz.

At the time of writing, the petition has generated more than 950,000 emails of support.

[source: AppGratis]


With a fine eye for detail, Keith Andrew is fuelled by strong coffee, Kylie Minogue and the shapely curve of a san serif font.