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Google is wiping a Chinese developer with half a billion installs off the face of the Play store

DO Global has been accused of committing widespread ad fraud

Google is wiping a Chinese developer with half a billion installs off the face of the Play store

An app developer with over half a billion installs is having its entire catalogue wiped from the Google Play store.

According to a report by Buzzfeed, 46 apps and games from DO Global have been delisted from the Android storefront.

Google told the outlet that a number of Play and ad product policies had been violated by DO Global, including ad fraud code found in the company's apps.

DO Global's ad inventory is also no longer available for purchase via Google AdMob.

"We actively investigate malicious behaviour, and when we find violations, we take action, including the removal of a developer’s ability to monetise their app with AdMob or publish on Play,” said a Google spokesperson.

Whoops, my bad

DO Global isn’t contesting this decision - in fact, the firm seems to be cooperating with Google’s decision. It appears the company was unaware of the “irregularities” in many of its products.

“We fully understand the seriousness of the allegations," read a statement from DO Global.

"Therefore, after reading the reports about our apps, we immediately conducted an internal investigation on this matter.

"We regret to find irregularities in some of our products’ use of AdMob advertisements. Given this, we fully understand and accept Google's decision. Moreover, we have actively cooperated with them by doing a thorough examination of every app involved.”


Staff Writer

Natalie Clayton is an Edinburgh-based freelance writer and game developer. Besides PCGamesInsider and Pocketgamer.biz, she's written across the games media landscape and was named in the 2018 GamesIndustry.biz 100 Rising Star list.