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The app’s name says it all: Remove China Apps.
Developed by a self-proclaimed “Indian startup” named OneTouch AppLabs, Remove China Apps crossed 1 million downloads within 10 days of launch in May. Its overnight success came amid rising China-Indian tensions over the countries’ disputed border in the Himalayas.
Most of the app’s installs are found in India, although analytics data from App Annie shows that it has been gaining momentum in Australia in the last few days, rising to No.5 among Android tools apps.
The app is straightforward to use: Click scan and it will either congratulates one on having no Chinese apps or displays a list of those that are determined to be of Chinese origin — like TikTok.
India is one of the top overseas destinations for Chinese tech companies. Xiaomi and Oppo have dominated mobile sales there for some time and a significant number of top Android apps in the country are developed by Chinese companies, as my former colleague Jon Russell acutely pointed out.
On Android, Remove China Apps has a near-perfect 4.9 out of 5 stars rating from nearly 180,000 reviews. It claims it can identify an app’s country of origin based on market research, while it does not guarantee the result’s accuracy. It leaves the choice to users to remove the apps it flags, saying it provides the service for non-commercial purposes.
Despite its instant popularity, the app’s background is cryptic. The company website is a simple WordPress-based site and Remove China Apps is, in its own word, its first product. This is an underwhelming achievement in contrast to its grandiose statement claiming it has “experience of 8+ years in mobile and web application design, development and management.”
It’s also unclear how the developer defines “China apps.” For instance, will apps developed by overseas Chinese sound an alarm? How about a Chinese subsidiary that operates a fully localized team abroad? User tests show that it flags the U.S. video conferencing giant Zoom. Does the fact that its founder Eric Yuan, an American citizen born in China, makes Zoom a “China app”? Meanwhile, it misses some obvious targets, like Chinese apps that come bundled with smartphones.
As of the writing, we haven’t heard back from the company regarding the methodologies it uses to spot “China apps.” It does, however, disclose online what information it collects from users, including one’s device model, the language set for the device system, the device manufacturer and app-specific information such as the version code of apps, the version name of apps, and the package name of apps.
The app has prompted heated debate among Chinese developers targeting international markets. Baijing, or Beluga Whale, a popular online community for China’s app exporters, wrote (in Chinese) that Remove China Apps is “a form of market disruption” and called on Chinese developers to report the app to Google.
Many are wary of rising anti-China sentiment overseas. As the founder of a major app exporter said to me: “I think what happens in India will happen in other countries in the future, so this is a long-term impact that should factor into Chinese developers’ calculation.”
There’s perhaps some assurance for Chinese developers. While users of the detection app applaud its mission, a few complain that there are no immediate replacements of certain Chinese apps. One of the top indigenous alternatives recommended by users is Jio Platforms, the well-funded Reliance subsidiary that operates a wide range of mobile apps.
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PlayStation gamers, there is some bad news for you. The PS5 event scheduled for June 4 has been postponed. On the official PlayStation Blog, Sony has said, “We have decided to postpone the PlayStation 5 event scheduled for June 4. While we understand gamers worldwide are excited to see PS5 games, we do not feel that right now is a time for celebration and for now, we want to stand back and allow more important voices to be heard.” PlayStation Twitter handle has also tweeted the same update. The PS5 reveal is a big deal for Sony but considering the current unrest in the US, Sony has decided to let go of the spotlight till things settle down.
The June 4 event was meant to showcase games launching for the PS4. It was speculated that we could get a glimpse of the new console but it was unlikely as Sony has said that this was the first in a series of events planned to showcase the PS5.
The beginning of June is usually when E3 (Electronics Entertainment Expo) kicks off. Due to the COVID-9 pandemic, however, the event has been cancelled. The surprising thing is that Sony announced early on that it wouldn’t participate in E3 this year and yet they were the first set to showcase games for the console at the time when E3 usually takes place.
While we haven’t seen the PS5 console, we have seen the new DualSense controller that players will get with the console. You can check out details of the controller here. Microsoft, on the other hand, has shown off the design and interior of the Xbox Series X and also had a gameplay reveal event to showcase games for the upcoming console. While Microsoft has said that all first-party games releasing for the first 2 years on the Series X will be playable on the Xbox One family of devices Sony has said that they will be looking forward to the PS5 and games launching for that system will take advantage of its capabilities.
In other Sony news, the Last of Us Part 2, one of the PlayStation's highly anticipated games is around the corner and you can read more about the game here.
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Twitter suspended the account of a white nationalist group claiming to be an Antifa organization that pushed violent rhetoric related to ongoing protests — Two hashtags that trended worldwide on Twitter falsely claimed that there was a “cover-up” or a “blackout” of protests in Washington, D.C., overnight.
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