一款小众iPhone应用如何月收入8万美元

一则最新报道显示，苹果应用商店内有一些小众应用，通过订购和广告可以获得大量收入。

应用开发商约翰尼·林上周对应用商店进行分析后，列出了收入最高的应用。他的研究发现，收入最高的应用依旧是Dropbox和Evernote等大牌服务，但由知名度较低的开发者Ngan Vo Thi Thuy开发的一款相对小众的应用，在应用商店收入最高的10款应用中排在了第10位。据应用跟踪服务Sensor Tower表示，这款应用名为“Mobile protection: Clean & Security VPN”，月收入8万美元。

林对这款应用被广泛应用的原因产生了好奇，因此对其进行了一些研究和试用，并把研究结果发表在了Medium上。他发现，按他的话这款应用采用了一种“奸诈的做法”，要求用户分享他们的联系人。继续使用后，他发现这款应用要求他支付99.99美元，订购七天的病毒扫描服务。如果他同意订购，每个月要支付400美元才能使用这款应用的病毒扫描功能，而有许多iSO用户似乎支付了这笔费用。

目前，这款应用仍可在应用商店下载，在应用描述中称其是一款安全程序。但林注意到作为一款VPN或虚拟私人网络，它还可以汇聚网络流量。换言之，用户通过这款应用发送所有网络流量。

这不见得是坏事，在应用商店里，有许多更知名开发商开发的类似应用，每周的价格低于100美元。另外值得注意的一点是，在撰写本文时，这款应用的用户评级为三星半。有一些用户说这款应用让iPhone手机“运行更流畅”和“速度更快”。也有人“高度”推荐这款应用。这些评价的真实性无从考证。

之后，对这款应用持怀疑态度的林研究了它和其他类似程序如何吸引用户和产生如此高的收入。他表示，这款应用利用了苹果的应用商店搜索广告，当用户搜索相关内容时，这款应用会出现在列表的前列。

林写道：“事实证明，骗子们正在利用苹果相对较新和不成熟的应用商店搜索广告产品。”他补充道：“广告与真实搜索结果几乎无法区分，有些搜索结果的第一页全都是广告。”

苹果在去年的全球开发者大会上推出了搜索广告产品。虽然广告上明确标注了蓝色的“广告”标签，但其设计与搜索结果中列出的应用类似，可能导致用户混淆。

苹果并未对《财富》杂志的置评请求做出回应。《财富》杂志未能联系到Mobile protection: Clean & Security VPN的开发者，无法获知其对此事的意见。

一直以来，苹果都在宣传其应用商店中的应用经过了严格审查。提交到应用商店的所有应用都会经过苹果的审查， 以确保它们是安全实用的，能够保护用户信息。显然，Mobile protection: Clean & Security VPN和林担心的其他应用，通过了审查程序，成功登陆了应用商店。

无论是那种情况，很明显苹果的应用商店能够给开发者创造收入。在上周于加州圣何塞召开的年度全球开发者大会上，苹果表示自应用商店在2008年推出以来，已经向开发者支付了700亿美元收入，包括用户购买应用的收入和通过应用商店产生的其他收入。（财富中文网）

译者：刘进龙/汪皓

Apple's App Store features some little-known apps that generate significant revenue through a combination of subscriptions and ads, according to a new report.

App developer Johnny Lin last week analyzed the App Store to reveal which apps generate the most revenue. While his search found that some big name services like Dropbox and Evernote were among the leaders, it also discovered that a relatively obscure app from a little-known developer named Ngan Vo Thi Thuy was ranked No. 10 among the top 10 highest-grossing apps in the App Store. According to app-tracking service Sensor Tower, that app, called "Mobile protection :Clean & Security VPN" (sic), generates $80,000 monthly in revenue.

Intrigued about what made that app so widely used, Lin, who wrote about his findings on Medium, did some research about the app and also used it. He found that it engages in what he calls "duplicitous behavior" by asking users to share their contacts with it. As he continued to use the app, Lin discovered that it wanted to charge him $99.99 for a seven-day subscription to its virus scanner. If he had agreed—something many iOS users seem to be doing—he would have paid $400 a month for access to the app's virus scanner.

The app, which is still available in the App Store, describes itself as a security program. However, Lin notes that as a VPN, or virtual private network, it can also serve to funnel Internet traffic. In other words, users are sending all of their Internet traffic through the app.

While that isn't necessarily a bad thing, there are many similar apps in the App Store from better-known sources that cost less than $100 per week. Still, it's important to note that as of this writing, Mobile protection :Clean & Security VPN has a three-and-a-half star rating from users. Some of those users say the app makes the iPhone "work better" and "faster." Others "highly" recommended the app. The authenticity of those reviews could not be verified.

Lin, who was suspicious of the app, then examined how it and similar programs attract users and generate so much revenue. He said that the apps use Apple's App Store search ads to move to the top of the search results when users input relevant queries.

"Turns out, scammers are abusing Apple’s relatively new and immature App Store Search Ads product," Lin wrote. He added that the "ads look almost indistinguishable from real results, and some ads take up the entire search result’s first page."

Apple (aapl, -1.04%) unveiled the search ads at last year's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC). They are clearly marked with a blue "ad" tag, but have a similar design to the apps listed in the search results, which could confuse some users.

Apple did not respond to a Fortune request for comment about the report. The developer of Mobile protection :Clean & Security VPN could not be found for comment.

For its part, Apple has long marketed apps in its App Store as being well-vetted. All apps submitted to the store are checked by Apple to ensure they're safe, useful, and protect user information. Of course, Mobile protection :Clean & Security VPN and other apps Lin is concerned about, made it through that vetting process to get into the App Store.

Whatever the case, it's clear Apple's App Store is a potential money-maker for developers. At its annual WWDC event last week in San Jose, Calif., Apple said that it had paid $70 billion to developers in earnings for people buying their apps and from other revenue generated through the store since its debut in 2008.