CooTek Says Some Apps Temporarily Disabled by Google
July 17 2019 - 9:27AM
Dow Jones News
By Colin Kellaher
CooTek (Cayman) Inc. (CTK) on Wednesday said Alphabet Inc.'s
(GOOG) Google has temporarily disabled some of the company's apps
from the Google Play Store and Google Admob, but it denied
allegations that apps it submitted last month engaged in malicious
ad activity.
BuzzFeed News on Tuesday said Google was banning the Chinese app
developer from its Play store and ad platforms after BuzzFeed and a
security company provided evidence that CooTek's apps continued to
bombard users with disruptive ads even after the company claimed it
had stopped the behavior.
According to the BuzzFeed report, more than 60 of CooTek's apps
had been removed from the Play store, and CooTek had been
completely banned from Google's lucrative ad platforms.
CooTek on Wednesday said it reexamined its apps and found no
evidence to support the BuzzFeed allegations, and the company said
the updated apps it submitted to Google Play in June didn't engage
in any malicious ad activity.
CooTek said is "in continuous communication with Google to
clarify the potential misunderstandings," adding that the matter
won't affect existing users.
However, CooTek warned that its ability to attract new users and
generate revenue from Google Admob may be hurt, pending the
restoration of access.
Shares of CooTek were recently down 5.6%, to $8.65.
Full BuzzFeed story at:
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/craigsilverman/google-banned-cootek-adware
Write to Colin Kellaher at colin.kellaher@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
July 17, 2019 10:12 ET (14:12 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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