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I am curious, does people uploading pirated versions of your app to third party stores really impact you? I imagine most of your users would only be on the Play

I am curious, does people uploading pirated versions of your app to third party stores really impact you? I imagine most of your users would only be on the Play Store. From my understanding, piracy isn't a much of a problem so long as it's not happening on main platform. Is there something I am missing?

natch 8y ago
For one thing, the fact that the pirated versions might be malware or otherwise harmful could impact his/her reputation or brand.
- iainmerrick 8y ago
  Right -- I gave up trying to fix the problem, for example via some kind of copy protection, as I can’t think of a good non-risky solution and figured the sales impact was small. But I hate that potential users are put at risk just by googling for free copies. I guess adding “legit” mobile ads might help, but I don’t like that as I think mobile ads are a completely miserable experience. And people would probably still rip it off and install their own ads anyway. You simply can’t trust any APKs you find by googling. (Obvious to most people on HN, of course.)
  - iliketosleep 8y ago
    Brand damage is a good point, but I believe that most genuine customers will not go to strange websites or obscure app stores to download your app, and those who do probably aren't the sort of "customers" you'd want. Hence, I couldn't see why it's much of a problem. The genuine user will more than likely just download it on Google Play. If there were people ripping off your app and putting it on Google Play, that would be different and worth worrying about. I'm curious why my original question was downvoted. I thought it was a valid question.
    - iainmerrick 8y ago
      I think it’s a good question! One thing I want to add is, many people around the world (for example many in India and China) don’t have access to Google Play. People with Amazon devices don’t have Google Play (although it doesn’t seem like there a lot of them). It’s difficult for a small team to deliver a good product to all those different groups of people, and it’s frustrating that they’re instead serviced by the black market.

natch 8y ago

For one thing, the fact that the pirated versions might be malware or otherwise harmful could impact his/her reputation or brand.

iainmerrick 8y ago
Right -- I gave up trying to fix the problem, for example via some kind of copy protection, as I can’t think of a good non-risky solution and figured the sales impact was small. But I hate that potential users are put at risk just by googling for free copies. I guess adding “legit” mobile ads might help, but I don’t like that as I think mobile ads are a completely miserable experience. And people would probably still rip it off and install their own ads anyway. You simply can’t trust any APKs you find by googling. (Obvious to most people on HN, of course.)
- iliketosleep 8y ago
  Brand damage is a good point, but I believe that most genuine customers will not go to strange websites or obscure app stores to download your app, and those who do probably aren't the sort of "customers" you'd want. Hence, I couldn't see why it's much of a problem. The genuine user will more than likely just download it on Google Play. If there were people ripping off your app and putting it on Google Play, that would be different and worth worrying about. I'm curious why my original question was downvoted. I thought it was a valid question.
  - iainmerrick 8y ago
    I think it’s a good question! One thing I want to add is, many people around the world (for example many in India and China) don’t have access to Google Play. People with Amazon devices don’t have Google Play (although it doesn’t seem like there a lot of them). It’s difficult for a small team to deliver a good product to all those different groups of people, and it’s frustrating that they’re instead serviced by the black market.