How come TurboVPN can have double the amount of downloads compared to NordVPN and ExpresVPN? ++

Sunny' 🌻@slrpnk.net to Technology@lemmy.world – 113 points –

Disclaimer: I know TurboVPN and the others mentioned are not good services to use, I'm strictly doing research. I'm not looking for VPN recommendations.

Genuinely wondering how these numbers are possible? 300M downloads and 8.35M reviews...? How?! Not even Amazon Shopping app or Disney+ have this many reviews. And surely NordVPN and Express VPN are considerable larger in both users and resources? I've never seen a sponsorship, not even once, from Turbo VPN. Are these numbers regional based? Is Turbo VPN more known in other regions? Is it easy to spoof these numbers?

Appreciate any comments on the matter, and have a nice day 🌻

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Maybe something like this service. Find it a bit dishonest if you ask me, but I don't think it affects competition that much. People will try multiple apps if they don't find what they are looking for.

Ah yeah, quite possible! Would have thought Google would be on top of this though, but probably not? The service in the mail does not seem to exist anymore, but was able to check them out with Wayback Machine; https://web.archive.org/web/20220831185349if_/https://www.appenhancer.com/

Thanks for sharing 🌻

Would have thought Google would be on top of this though, but probably not?

It's against play store ToS, but if somehow you can make it look organic enough it might be difficult to proof. In truth I don't know how this kind of services operate. I do think Google would try to counter this as much as possible yes. And 8M reviews can't be just from this kind of services, at some point you have real users engagement, you just need the initial visibility boost.

Good luck with your research🖖