Google has eliminated a well-liked however controversial stay video chat app Chamet from the Play Retailer. The corporate confirmed the transfer to TechCrunch saying that the app violated its user-generated content material (UGC) coverage.
The corporate didn’t present an announcement however pointed to its coverage which says, “Apps whose main function is that includes objectionable UGC shall be faraway from Google Play.” The app was pulled from the Play Retailer someday final month.
Centered round stay video streaming, Chamet supplied an choice to customers to privately name the host of a stream with a fee. A report from the Financial Occasions suggests Chamet and different apps had many ladies streamers who have been dancing to songs or simply speaking about their lives, which made them fashionable. Aside from video calls, customers might additionally ship items to those streamers by in-app funds.
Chamet tried to stray away from suggestive content material by warning its customers to not broadcast content material associated to “Pornography, violence, vulgarity, juveniles, and different associated conditions.” Nevertheless, the app was stuffed with suggestive content material and adverts.
Final month, YouTuber Caleb Friesen tweeted a protracted thread about Chamet’s sketchy possession practices — beginning with the corporate’s barebones web site with little info.
The #1 grossing app within the Indian app retailer disappeared this week. The secretive Chinese language firm behind it operated an 18+ UGC camgirl empire with impunity between 2020 and 2023. India was their most profitable market. Right here’s what I discovered on the backside of the Chamet rabbit gap 🧵 pic.twitter.com/fZt5lMHszI
— Caleb Friesen (@caleb_friesen2) August 27, 2023
Chamet was on the highest charts in a number of Play Retailer classes as a top-grossing app. And there may be knowledge to again it up. Customers in India spent greater than $13.4 million on Chamet between January—July, in line with the info shared with TechCrunch by analytics agency Knowledge.ai. It added that folks in India spent $15.4 million on Chamet final yr, with lifetime spending totaling as much as $38 million. The app garnered greater than 26 million lifetime downloads within the nation.
The agency’s knowledge steered that whereas Chamet was a top-grossing app, different apps within the stay video chat class akin to Azar, LiveU, and Honeycam Chat have raked in thousands and thousands. Total, customers in India spent greater than $46 million final yr on this class of apps — greater than one other high-spending class of relationship which noticed an annual spend of $42.2 million.
Google didn’t specify if it plans to take comparable motion on different stay video chat apps.