Google – with great power comes great responsibility

Google removed ~600 apps and banned their developers from its Play Store and ad networks, noting ad fraud and disruptive mobile ads. The company defines disruptive ads as “ads that are displayed to users in unexpected ways, including impairing or interfering with the usability of device functions”. Most of these apps were made by developers based in China, India, and Singapore. The biggest impact was faced by Cheetah Mobile, one of the repeat offenders. It saw 40 of its apps suffering a ban. Cheetah Mobile, a Chinese mobile internet company, is by no means a small business. It has US$ 765 million in revenues and US$ 70 million in operating income and employs 1100+ people. This ban would hit Cheetah Mobile dramatically – what can be worse than your app being banned when you are a mobile internet company. Cheetah Mobile has claimed that 23% of its revenues in the first 9 months of 2019 were generated with the help of Google products. There will be a huge financial loss as well as job loss. Ironically, in July 2014, Cheetah Mobile had encouraged its users to uninstall Google Chrome, and replace it with Cheetah Mobile's own browser. Clearly, it seems like there was more to this ban than one sees at the first glance, and Google is trying to teach a lesson to smaller companies that challenge its power. Google had already banned 2 of Cheetah Mobile’s apps in December 2018. Cheetah plans to appeal the blanket ban decision. As a user, I’m glad to see Google realizing and exercising its power for better consumer satisfaction. It even refunded brands whose ads were disrupted by such disruptive ads.