Apple removes over 5,000 Vietnamese apps for fraud
As many as 5,064 Vietnamese apps were removed from the App Store in 2023 due to fraud-related issues, according to the App Store 2023 Transparency Report.
Vietnam was among the countries with the most apps removed from the App Store, ranking in fifth place. The figure was 3,398 apps less than the previous year, down 40%, with the majority of the removed apps belonging to the Games category.
Apple said that it took away over 116,000 apps, and China topped the list with more than 22,200 apps axed, followed by the United States with 17,700, India with 5,800, and the UK with 5,100.
The tech giant reported, besides design violations and fraud there were many other reasons for removal, such as violating developers’ code of conduct, copying other apps’ designs, spam apps, violating intellectual property rights, and spreading fake news.
According to Apple’s own guidelines, design violations include applications that are outdated or have worse user experience than expected, such as redirecting users to a website before running the app.
Fraud included applications that created fraudulent reviews of competitors, unfair competition, or false content to trick users.
Apple said currently it has around 1.87 million applications available for download on the App Store.