AnTuTu has grown to become one of the top-rated benchmarking apps for Android devices, including phones and tablets. The app has been downloaded millions of times from the Play Store where three different categories of apps are available. Well, that is in the past now as the three apps are no longer available on the Play Store. Google has removed all three apps in a crackdown that is targeted at infamous developer Cheetah Mobile.
The three AnTuTu that were hit by the clampdown includes Antutu 3DBench, Antutu Benchmark, and Antutu Benchmark. We can’t say for sure when the apps were removed but it was between the end of February and early March as the AnTuTu benchmark app was available on February 22. A search of the Antutu keyword on the Play Store right now shows you other benchmark apps in the search result.
As stated earlier, AnTuTu appears to have been affected by Google’s clampdown on all Cheetah Mobile apps. The benchmark outfit appears to be owned by Cheetah Mobile hence Google’s sledgehammer.
CHRONICLE OF GOOGLE’S ISSUE WITH CHEETAH MOBILE
One of Cheetah Mobile’s most popular apps is the Clean Master Android App. But despite its popularity, it was reported in 2014 that ads promoting Clean Master manipulate Android users with deceptive tactics when browsing websites within the app’s advertising framework. In April 2014, Ferenc László Nagy from Sophos Labs captured some pop-up ads that led to Clean Master, warning the device had been infected with a virus.
In July 2014, Cheetah Mobile encouraged users to uninstall Google Chrome and replace it with Cheetah Mobile’s own browser during Clean Master’s clean up and optimization process. This practice allowed Cheetah Mobile to gain an unfair position in the marketplace and led to a Google crackdown.
In December 2018, Cheetah Mobile was implicated in a massive click fraud scheme, leading Google to remove two of its apps from its Play Store. In February 2020, Google banned nearly 600 apps on the Play Store including all Cheetah Mobile’s apps “for violating our disruptive ads policy and disallowed interstitial policy. Cheetah Mobile has denied the charges.
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AnTuTu has issued a statement responding to the ban and in order to make the apps available still, the outfit replaced some of the Play Store download links on its website with simple APK links.
In a statement issued as a response to an inquiry by Android Police, AnTuTu’s CEO Zhao Chen stated;
“We received a notification email from Google on March 7th informing us that AnTuTu was one of the related publisher accounts of Cheetah Mobile, all AnTuTu apps were removed from the Play Store. But in fact, We think there is some misunderstanding about it. Antutu is NOT the related account of Cheetah Mobile!!
AnTuTu was founded in 2011, even before Cheetah Mobile, and is one of the earliest Google Play developers. Cheetah Mobile invested in us in around 2014 and became one of our shareholders since then. However, we still retain a considerable account of shares and Independent operation of the company as well as our own independent Google Play account. Cheetah Mobile has never touched our Google Play account, and AnTuTu has NOT done any promotion of Cheetah Mobile’s software.
We believe that the reason for Google’s misjudgment is that we purchased and used the legal services from Cheetah Mobile, so our privacy policy link used the address of cmcm.com. This is what we are working on, including changing legal supplier.
Regarding Fu Sheng being the chairman / manager of Beijing AnTuTu Technology Co., Ltd., this is because of the requirements of the investors. In fact, many Chinese companies have such requirements when investing. When the shares reach a certain percentage, investors will require changes in government registration documents. The company is actually operated by Beijing AnTuTu Technology Co., Ltd. Henan Branch. (https://www.tianyancha.com/company/3222572910), and Fu Sheng does not actually participate in the operation or the management of AnTuTu. Anyway, we have informed the investor Cheetah Mobile asking them to solve these problems caused by them.
We hope that Google can examine AnTuTu’s account carefully and finally resolve this misunderstanding as soon as possible.”
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