App brushes the lake, how do you think

Every industry will have a ranking, like reading will have the second runner-up, now, in the brush list crazy growth in the era, some people see it as "mobile internet trench oil", but some people have different views.

There are rankings where there are rivers and lakes: App Brush list, the following are some cases.

In the old office building of a pioneering park outside the North five ring of Haidian District, Beijing, the reporter saw Shanyao, more than 30 years old, slim, looking shrewd but without losing enthusiasm. Walking into a compartment full of ash and broken bricks, Shanyao his business card to reporters at his desk, and stressed: "Top when interacting, brush the list of industry leaders and ancestors." ”

Shanyao is one of the core founders of the interactive Advertising Limited. When the interaction was registered in 2009, it was originally a small workshop for five or six people. Do the brush list, has been doing network marketing, including in the forum post irrigation, writing Enterprise soft, in the electric platform on the praise, and so on, so accumulated a lot of customer resources.

"We actually have some sunshine advertising business, but at that time, the regular ad agency on the PC side, margin less than 20%." and do brush volume business gross margin can reach 40%-70%, so this is our initial main push business. Shanyao said that before 2010, its PC-side brush volume of business sales reached 80 million to 120 million yuan a year. But with the development of the mobile Internet, sales and profits on the PC side are falling, and its business has slipped by 40% by 2011. Transformation is imperative.

As Apple launched its App store in 2008, Shanyao and his team were exposed to more and more applications. They found that these apps played a key role in the rankings when they were promoted, with the decision to download.

2010 Top when interactive began to try app brush list business. "At first, many companies resisted. Shanyao says, "We show them the list of the apps we've developed, and they start experimenting with small amounts of work, tasting the sweetness and signing up for some cooperation." Although the number of customers at that time is very small, but the gross margin is very high, can reach 80%. I don't think this is a moral category, it's a business operation. ”

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Brush list is "labor-intensive" business, human costs accounted for the entire operating costs of 30%-40%.

Soon, Shanyao found that "small workshop" type of operation can not be sustained, "we have no reputation, it is difficult to win customer trust, The knot also appeared a lot of deadbeat." Therefore, in June 2011, the top when the interaction merged two other in the Internet brush flow of the studio, began the operation of the company, "we can develop a ticket to sign the agreement, the formal tax to the state."

After the scale of the top when the interaction with the App Store brush list as the company's main business, equipped with 6 core technical personnel, and also responsible for monitoring and control system of the operating team has 6 to 7 people, responsible for the customer's sales team has 2 to 3 people. At present, top when interactive brush list business Core team has more than 20 people, in Shanyao view, the brush list is a "labor-intensive" business, of which the human cost of the entire operating costs of 30%-40%.

Top when the interaction within the core team set up more than 30,000 people of the supernumerary team. "Our supernumerary personnel are the resources of the National Federation of Disabled Persons and have been accumulating since 2009." They have just started to take some voting business, the network of Navy and micro-blogging business, distributed throughout the country. "For this part of the supernumerary personnel, Shanyao said that there is a special ERP system for management." In fact, each part-time staff based on the amount of business per month, the average income is only 1000 to 3000 yuan.

In addition to human costs, there are 50% to 60% of accounts and sales costs, and 10% to 20% of bad debts. Hardware is Shanyao in the company's costs, do not count on specific projects, in fact, the hardware is based on the beginning of the 2009 to do the amount of brush accumulated. Therefore, the actual cost of the brush list is not high. "Someone, computer, server, VPN account, IP and bank card, brush list is the flow of operation." ”

In Shanyao view, the large-scale operation, more important is to knot the smooth, also let the brush list business looks "more reliable." He also invited a special law firm to do legal advice, and customers signed confidentiality agreement, if the disclosure of customer information, the company needs to pay 100,000 yuan. "Kill also do not say" is the brush list profession defends the professional ethics, the brush list company all refuses to disclose any service customer name.

Shanyao is deliberately downplaying the risk of a possible lower shelf for the brush list. According to the top when the interactive brush list contract, if there is application because the top when the brush list business and was under the shelf, the company will pay 1 million yuan. "We have to communicate with Apple, if Apple next to the products I operate, to compensate me, so we dare to do so recklessly." ”

At present, the top when interactive cumulative customers more than 300, monthly sales of 5 million-6 million yuan. As the competition becomes more and more fierce, the gross profit of the brush list business now begins to decrease. "The top 10 of the first list can be sold for more than 40,000 yuan, now the top 10 can be sold to 20,000 dollars is very good, but even so we still profitable." "Shanyao said.

The rules of Apple rankings can be traced

Villains, outsmart. No matter how Apple changes, there are always rules to follow.

Lao Sun is an internet practitioner who pays close attention to the trend of the brush list, and his account on Sina Weibo

@AppStore to brush the list of things that are of concern. He used a software called Appfigures to monitor the ranking curve of app application in China every day, exposing many development companies. He sees the brush as "the gutter oil in the mobile internet," and says at least half of the top 50 in China are currently on the list.

The brush list is technically not difficult. Log on to an Apple itunes account, download it at the App Store, and then replace the computer's IP address for another account to do the same. Since registration in the United States requires a credit card, it is not available in China, so it is very easy to overrun the Chinese area account.

If the same IP address to download too much of the application and do too much evaluation, Apple will think that the IP is suspected of cheating. Therefore, the key to the brush list is to have more than one itunes account, brush the list when the replacement of different IP, and the use of VPN to replace IP is a time-saving, labor-saving approach.

There are places where there are rivers and lakes: app Brush the top lakes and rivers [save to album]

In the top when the interaction, received the Brush list task, first by the ERP system according to the local part-time staff to allocate human reserves, while in a short period of time to accumulate a large number of valid accounts. "We understand that the server updates the rules of fetching useful data, will be in accordance with the time set by customers, focus on." "At the moment, the most important factor in the list of iOS platforms is download data."

Today, Apple has updated its ranking algorithm, which is not as fast as it was a year ago. The current list of App Store also has many variables, but Shanyao is still full of confidence: "The demand is there, there is a place in the ranks of the lake." Besides villains, outsmart, Apple no matter how the change, there are always rules to follow. This July adjustment, we are in 10 days to overcome the difficulties, and we also have a general understanding of the timing of the lock, know which time period to operate better, the cost of less. ”

App Daydream never wakes up

The wind cast on the brush list does not advocate, also does not object, the fancy is the cash flow that it brings.

The rapid formation of the app brushes industry chain stems from the huge demand of developers. Do app promotion of Anwar Media senior Director Qin to reporters: "The App Store competition is too intense, the end of last year, App Store application breakthrough 500,000, a new application does not do promotion on the shelves equals nothing." ”

At present, China's iOS and Android platform developers up to 200,000, the entire market income is only 1.5 billion yuan. In order to make their apps quickly stand out, more and more developers choose to brush this "shortcut". If the application is brushed to the front of the list, the download surge, thus ensuring that the top of the rankings, so as to render a snowball-type growth. According to the App Store analytics company Distimo data, the number of applications crammed into the top 10 of the free list in the US Area App Store can be downloaded up to 80,000 times daily.

Promotion cost is one of the key factors. Qin Introduction, the promotion of app's set of routine communication program to complete, it is possible to raise the rankings to 25-50, investment in the 100,000-200,000 yuan, the average user's activation cost of 10-20 yuan. and a set of communication scheme from planning, implementation to effective, it takes at least half a month. And some brush list companies to brush into China's list of the top 10 quotes less than 20,000 yuan, claiming to be within 1 hours of compliance, can bring 15,000 natural downloads.

In the top when interactive customers, brush China free, pay and best-selling list of all, to play a majority of applications. "The price is different. Free list We mainly according to the ranking of the total list, there are two ways to cooperate in the pay list, according to the amount or rank to charge. "Shanyao said.

Although the cost of the brush list is lower than the normal app promotion, the real game is still a budget-rich company. Shanyao said: "The brush list still has the cost, before is a day 20,000 yuan, the general start-up company may not spend this money, if is the grass-roots team is worse, may sometimes wages all can not afford." "According to the top when the interaction of the operation process, focus on the first round of fire is a price, to long-term maintenance will need to charge for maintenance time."

Apple currently has 650,000 apps, through Pay-per-click Advertising, time-limited free, microblogging marketing and other means to enter the top 800 is already very good. And Apple's irresponsible implementation of the system, so that the app in a disorderly competition, the victims are those grassroots entrepreneurs. "The product even if good, you do not brush, you will certainly be other brush products to the top down." "Shanyao said.

Currently, the App Store audit team is based on just one Apple App Store Audit guide: A developer (or other improper way) that attempts to manipulate or deceive user ratings or chart rankings in the App Store using forged or paid reviews. will be removed from the iOS developer project. "And China's Consumer Protection Act stipulates that false product descriptions, hiring others for sales inducement, are illegal." But so far no one has been convicted of the list, and developers who "got caught" in the App Store cleanup have been warned and heavily blocked.

There are places where there are rivers and lakes: app Brush the top lakes and rivers [save to album]

While the list is growing wildly on iOS, Android harsh and the domestic third-party app market are also plagued by the industry's brush list. But because of the domestic third-party Android application market up to dozens of, single brush one of the overall download volume has little impact, and the ranking algorithm is not the same, more difficult. At the same time, some application market rankings similar to advertising, is directly sold. So the brush list is more intensive on iOS.

Anwar Media founder Wang said: "The ranking produced by the brush list, may bring short-term effects and benefits, but can not maintain long-term user concerns." Users will not be cheated for long. "and the old Internet practitioner," said Sun, "Chinese developers really wake up from daydreaming, back to the application itself, to provide users with the services and products are fundamental."

However, Shanyao insists, the brush list is a normal business. He plans in the future the company's Brush list business volume bigger, the design new business model, takes the auction rank the way to do the brush list, who puts the price high position to be some higher. At the same time to the international, to open up the list of Japan, Europe and the United States. He revealed that the top when the interaction began to contact some VC, "simply to brush the list of this business to finance is not particularly reliable, the need for packaging, specific packaging temporarily inconvenient to disclose." But the VC to our Brush list business does not advocate, also do not object. What they value is the more stable cash flow that the list brings us.