Conflicts with statements by CEO

AppGratis is promising developers higher App Store rankings, despite claims to the contrary by the company's CEO, according to Business Insider. "Reaching the the top of any App Store is a simple and logical equation. But we’re not in this business," CEO Simon Dawlat told TechCrunch in a statement yesterday. "We’re in in the business of helping the end users discover new apps, and to serve this mission, we’re playing the long run. We’re building a community. We’ve never been in the business of gaming the top charts or anything. This is a very strong statement from us."

However, a pitch document said to have been leaked by a developer estimates the App Store ranking and number of downloads a company can expect based on country, device, and their buy-in with the AppGratis system. A $100,000 buy, for example, could allegedly put an app in fifth place in the US App Store.

Dawlat has confirmed the document's authenticity, and defended it in a new statement. "I believe the document you got shows install, ranking and CPI estimates for AppGratis on a per-country basis," he explains. "Today mobile media buying is this simple equation where the biggest industry players will acquire a certain number of installs through guys like AppGratis, Facebook Mobile Ads, Apple's iAd and all the other guys in order to reach their ranking objective –– whatever they are."

App Store rules prohibit companies from trying to artificially inflate sales rankings, or mimic the structure of the store. AppGratis has insisted that its app was removed from the App Store unjustly, and even started a petition to have the move reversed, but the new document may undermine the company's arguments.

by MacNN Staff