Iran's Android Market Highlights Top 6 Reasons Apps Get Rejected

EghtesadOnline: Iranian Android market Cafe Bazaar in its latest report has said why apps mostly get rejected by it for distribution. Poor interface, low-quality content, and security flaws are among the main reasons listed by the company.

News ID: ۷۴۶۴۶۷

12 January 2019

In its Q3 Android Market report for the Iranian season that ended in December, Cafe Bazaar refers to poor user interface, lack of valuable content, being copycats of another app, flouting user privacy, poor performance and technical flaws plus copyright infringement.

Poor user interface tops the rejection chart accounting for 27.3% of publication refusal messages issued by the firm.

Bazaar says if an application’s interface is hard to navigate, the Android market place will not accept it for publication. It notes that two main factors are considered in this regard: whether the text displayed on the interface is illegible and the font is easy-to-read; the resolution of pictures and icons used on the interface, Financial Tribune reported.

The firm further adds that if it notices that developers have employed ready-made user interface kits, the app will be dismissed.

If there is not much substance in the content, developers should find themselves in hot water. If the content published through an application is of low quality, fragmentary or incomplete, Bazaar will decline to publish the app. Lack of valuable content accounted for 16% of the refusals.

Furthermore, Bazaar requires developers to provide accurate app descriptions. If the description is misleading users to download the app it will be removed by Bazaar.

Copycat and Copyright

In a guideline published on Bazaar website, the firm calls on developers to think twice before taking the trouble of remodeling the latest mobile craze.

If an app is a carbon copy of an application already published on Bazaar and does not offer any new services, the firm may reject it. In some 14% of the rejection cases, apps got the thumbs down from Bazaar for being recycled from somewhere else.

Copyright infringement accounted for 7% of publication dismissals. Bazaar explicitly says, “If copyright protected material is used in an app without the creator's consent the software will be rejected.”

Flouting user privacy and technical flaws accounted for 10% and 9% of the rejections.

The firm points out, “Users’ privacy is on top of Bazaar’s priorities. Downloading apps from Cafe Bazaar, users should be able to rest assured that the program is safe to use.”

“Therefore, if developers are to have access to users’ personal data this fact should be stated in a clear transparent way. Furthermore, the user should be informed why the developer needs to have access to the information, and for what purposes the data is to be used. Data gathered should be essential to the services offered to users. The process must also be conducted in a secure manner.”

If an app is a carbon copy of an application already published on Bazaar and does not offer any new services, the firm may reject it for publication. In some 14% of the refused cases apps got thumbs down being a copycat

Calling on developers to thoroughly test their products before applying for publication, Bazaar says if an application has technical flaws, or crashes during use, the firm will reject it.

Developers are required to regularly monitor the performance of their products. If after publication repeated crashes are reported, Bazaar will remove the app from its website.

An Overview

According to the last Bazaar report, in the last Iranian year that ended in March 2018, over 23,000 Android app developing teams in the country made 1.8 trillion rials ($16.6 million) in revenues, a significant amount for a sector relatively in its infancy.

The figures are indicative of the fast-growing ICT sector, putting it under the spotlight and attracting investors. Data released by the company cover the March 2017-18 fiscal.

According to the report, direct and induced employment in the growing business is 31,000.

Income of gaming apps jumped 94% year-on-year while the rest of the apps saw a surge of 64% compared to the previous year.

The number of people who downloaded Cafe Bazaar was 36 million including 29 million active users. There are 5.3 million users utilizing the app on a daily basis, accessing 151,000 programs and games.

During the one year the total number of downloads and updates conducted through Cafe Bazaar reached 1.6 billion, and 24.1 million comments were submitted on apps offered by the business. Users rated the programs 61.8 million times.