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Tapjoy: Apple still approving 'hundreds' of Tapjoy apps a week

No major clamp down on incentivisation

Tapjoy: Apple still approving 'hundreds' of Tapjoy apps a week
App incentivisation network Tapjoy has dismissed claims its business is the victim of a clamp down by Apple, branding suggestions that it has fallen foul of the Cupertino giant as baseless.

The firm's statement – delivered on its blog – comes after TechCrunch reported Tapjoy's operations were being 'stomped' on by Apple, with apps with Tapjoy's network deployed within them being actively removed from the App Store.

No conflict

That's a claim Tapjoy CEO Mihir Shah contests, stating in his blog post that his company works "diligently to ensure compliance with Apple's terms of service" and adding that Apple "approves hundreds of apps that integrate and leverage Tapjoy" each week.

Tapjoy's platform works by incentivising users to download other apps within its network by rewarding them with the likes of in-app currency, though critics claim it encourages users to download apps they don't want and, in turn, unfairly impacts on rankings within the App Store.

It's a practice that Apple is rumoured to have taken action against back in early 2011, owing to concerns of chart manipulation.

As such, while leagues of apps on the App Store have Tapjoy's network built in, Tapjoy itself exists as a web app, operating outside the realms of many of Apple's terms and conditions.

'Viable and valuable'

"The Mobile Value Exchange model that is at the heart of our platform serves a viable and valuable purpose for those developers, as well as consumers and advertisers," said Shah in the entry in response to TechCrunch's claim that the network is a purveyor of "junk."

"The simple fact is that 110 million monthly active users and 13 million registered users on Tapjoy.com agree with the Mobile Value Exchange model.

"They do so, because they love what we collectively provide."

TechCrunch's story was largely based on an admission by Glu CEO Niccolo de Masi that Apple had "extended it prohibition of incentivise advertising to include any linkage to external HTML 5 sites" in an earnings call.

That's an action that had resulted in a "degradation" of Glu's iOS advertising revenues, with de Masi specifically citing reducing revenues from Tapjoy.

"As a result our expectation for Q4 are being substantially lowered to reflect these factors as well as to delay our five new titles while our President of Studios completes its 60-day review," said de Masi.

You can read more about the impact on Glu's earnings here.

[source: Tapjoy]

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