AppGratis
| Founded | 2008 in San Francisco |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Paris, France |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Founder(s) | Simon Dawlat |
| Website | appgratis |
| Current status | Online |
| Native client(s) on | iOS, Android |
AppGratis is an app-discovery application founded in 2010 by French engineer, Simon Dawlat.[1][2][3][4][5] AppGratis curators find and recommend apps, which the apps are then featured to download for free or at a reduced price.[6] In April 2013, AppGratis was removed from the App Store for the alleged violation of App Store rules regarding third-party app promotion and marketing.[1][7]
History
AppGratis started as a newsletter listing daily app deals from the App Store for Apple users in 2008.[2][6] The AppGratis mobile application was created in 2010 while still using the newsletter model.[2] A team of publishers pick and review the quality of potential apps that want to be featured on the application.[2][6] AppGratis was a bootstrapped company until January 2013, where AppGratis raised $13.5 million from Iris Capital and the Orange Publicis fund to expand the application on an international level.[2][8] In February 2013, AppGratis passed the 10 million-user mark.[9][10] Before its removal from the App Store, AppGratis had 12 million iOS users.[9] A month after its removal from the Apple App Store, AppGratis launched the Android version of the application on Google Play.[10][11][12] The Android version has obtained 1 million to 5 million downloads.[13]
Controversy with Apple store
In November 2012, Apple approved the AppGratis iPhone application.[5] Days after receiving approval for the iPad application in 2013, Apple pulled the AppGratis application from the iOS App Store stating that the application violated clauses 2.25 and 5.6.[1][3][4][7][11][12] AppGratis was under investigation whether the application worked to inflate app rankings in the App Store charts.[5][14] The investigation of AppGratis incited French digital industry minister, Fleur Pellerin, to announce a call for closer regulation on the fairness and stability of digital distribution platforms.[14][15][16][17] AppGratis protested its ban with a user petition, which gained close to a million signatures by May 2013.[10][15][18]
See also
External links
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
