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“This Week in Apps: Coronavirus impacts app stores, Facebook sues mobile SDK maker, Apple kicks out a cloud gaming app - TechCrunch” plus 1 more

“This Week in Apps: Coronavirus impacts app stores, Facebook sues mobile SDK maker, Apple kicks out a cloud gaming app - TechCrunch” plus 1 more

This Week in Apps: Coronavirus impacts app stores, Facebook sues mobile SDK maker, Apple kicks out a cloud gaming app - TechCrunch

Posted: 29 Feb 2020 06:34 AM PST

Welcome back to This Week in Apps, the Extra Crunch series that recaps the latest OS news, the applications they support and the money that flows through it all.

The app industry is as hot as ever, with a record 204 billion downloads in 2019 and $120 billion in consumer spending in 2019, according to App Annie's recently released "State of Mobile" annual report. People are now spending 3 hours and 40 minutes per day using apps, rivaling TV. Apps aren't just a way to pass idle hours — they're a big business. In 2019, mobile-first companies had a combined $544 billion valuation, 6.5x higher than those without a mobile focus.

In this Extra Crunch series, we help you keep up with the latest news from the world of apps, delivered on a weekly basis.

This week, we'll look at the coronavirus outbreak's impact on the App Store, China's demand for App Store removals — and soon-to-be-removals, it seems. We're also talking about Facebook's lawsuit over a data-grabbing SDK, Tinder's new video series, the TSA ban on TikTok, Instagram's explanation for its lack of an iPad app and how Democratic presidential primary candidates are performing on mobile and social, among other things.

Headlines

Coronavirus concerns send Chinese ride-hailing apps crashing, games surging

One of the many economic fallouts related to COVID-19 coronavirus concerns is a significant decline in the usage of Chinese ride-hailing applications. According to Sensor Tower data, downloads of the three most popular apps — Hello, Didi and Dida — were down 75% year-over-year during the week of February 10 compared with the same time frame in 2019. Meanwhile, people staying home have been ordering food and groceries more often. Overall downloads of the top 10 apps in the food-ordering category increased by 68% from January 13 to the week of February 3.

Also on the rise are mobile games. According to a recent report by the FT, users in China downloaded a record number of games and apps as the virus outbreak confined people to their homes. More than 22 million downloads were registered in Apple's App Store in China during the week of February 2, according to App Annie, and average weekly downloads during the first two weeks of February were up 40% over the same time last year.

Meanwhile, Chinese tech giants, including Alibaba and Tencent, have been deploying health-rating systems to help authorities track the movements of millions of Chinese. Alibaba had been tapped to explore the rollout of a rating app to help the government control who can travel into and around the city. Along with Ant Financial, it worked to develop a smartphone-based rating system in conjunction with the government of Hangzhou. Tencent created a program for Shenzhen, reported The WSJ.

Top mobile game Plague Inc. pulled from China's App Store amid coronavirus outbreak

Plague Inc., a simulation game with more than 130 million players, was pulled from the Chinese App Store this week, a move that appears to be linked to the coronavirus outbreak. The company behind the game, Ndemic, posted a statement announcing that the game's content is now considered "illegal in China as determined by the Cyberspace Administration of China." Ndemic says it's trying to reach out to find out what, specifically, it could change in order to get the game back in China.

China yanks game from the App Store because of the coronavirus - PhoneArena

Posted: 29 Feb 2020 09:59 AM PST

A deadly disease is spreading throughout the world threatening humans. Countries are trying to stop the spread by tightening up their borders as the deadly plague continues to kill; everything thrown at the pathogen fails to destroy it. While this scenario sounds as though it was ripped from the headlines, it is actually the description of a mobile video game called Plague, Inc. that asks, "Can you infect the world?"

After eight years, the Chinese finally decided that a game called Plague Inc. is illegal in the country

Just the other day, as the coronavirus continued its real-life march throughout the world, the Chinese government abruptly decided to have the title removed from the Apple App Store. Now we should point out that the game has been around for eight years and has over 130 million players. In a statement, Ndemic Creations, the developer of the game, explained that the Cyberspace Administration of China has all of a sudden decided that the game includes content that is illegal in the country.

The statement from the developer noted that Plague Inc. is "the #1 strategy/simulation game worldwide and has been the most popular paid game in China for many years. Plague Inc. stands out as an intelligent and sophisticated simulation that encourages players to think and learn more about serious public health issues. We have a huge amount of respect for our Chinese players and are devastated that they are no longer able to access and play Plague Inc. It's not clear to us if this removal is linked to the ongoing coronavirus outbreak that China is facing. However, Plague Inc.'s educational importance has been repeatedly recognized by organizations like the CDC and we are currently working with major global health organizations to determine how we can best support their efforts to contain and control COVID-19...this situation is completely out of our control."

The developer says that it is trying to do what it can to get the game returned to the App Store in China, but it also points out that as a small studio located in the U.K., it faces David vs. Goliath odds against it. Of course, we do know how that story ended.

Developer Ndemic Creations warns that the game is not a scientific model

The developer writes, "The Coronavirus outbreak in China is deeply concerning and we've received a lot of questions from players and the media. Plague Inc. has been out for eight years now and whenever there is an outbreak of disease we see an increase in players, as people seek to find out more about how diseases spread and to understand the complexities of viral outbreaks. We specifically designed the game to be realistic and informative, while not sensationalizing serious real-world issues. This has been recognized by the CDC and other leading medical organizations around the world. However, please remember that Plague Inc. is a game, not a scientific model and that the current coronavirus outbreak is a very real situation which is impacting a huge number of people. We would always recommend that players get their information directly from local and global health authorities."

The coronavirus has already had an effect on the mobile industry in China, as contract manufacturers like Foxconn and Wistron shut assembly lines and are now trying to slowly ramp up production. Companies along the supply chain have also been hit and retail stores were shuttered. For example, in China all 42 Apple Stores were closed. Over the last week, 29 of them have reopened with a reduced 8-hour a day schedule. Tablet sales inside the country have soared. As more people in China work out of their homes and children get their lessons streamed to them away from school, there is a real need for the device.
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