In the fast-paced mobile-apps business, creating a hit app is no
guarantee of success: Developers must also fend off the copycats.
快速发展的移动应用行业,创造一个吸引人的应用程序并不一定意味着成功:开发者还要避免自己的应用程序被抄袭。
App makers say a growing group of 'cloners' are mimicking their products or misappropriating their names and images to ride an original app's success.
一些应用程序开发公司说,越来越多的"克隆者"正在模仿其产品,或是盗用它们的名字和图像来坐享其成。
The copycats often target top-selling apps and seek to siphon off users and
potential revenue. Others carry
malicious software. Despite their proliferation, app stores run by Google Inc. and others have been
unable to weed them out.
抄袭者的目标经常是一些畅销的应用程序,寻求抢夺其用户资源和潜在收入。另外一些克隆应用程序则携带恶意软件。尽管克隆软件数量激增,谷歌(Google Inc.)和其他公司运营的应用商店一直无法把它们清除。
Consider the experience of WhatsApp Inc., a Mountain View, Calif., company that makes a mobile-messaging app that has been downloaded hundreds of millions of times since 2009. After WhatsApp reached the top of the app-store rankings, WhatsApp employees noticed that other apps were hijacking its name to ride its coattails.
看看加州山景城的WhatsApp Inc.的遭遇吧。自从2009年以来,该公司制作的手机通信应用程序已经被下载了数亿次。WhatsApp在应用商店的排名升至首位之后,WhatsApp的员工注意到,其他的应用程序正在盗用其名字,指望能沾光。
Today in Google's app store, alleged WhatsApp clones include 'Whatsapp Nearby,' 'Whatsapp Friends,' and 'Whatsapp Add Me' -- none of which are made by WhatsApp. Those three apps, which were made by the same developer, have been downloaded hundreds of thousands of times. The developer denies they are copycats.
今天,在谷歌的应用商店,被指克隆Whatsapp的应用程序包括"Whatsapp Nearby","Whatsapp Friends"和"Whatsapp Add Me",这些应用程序没有一个是WhatsApp公司制作的。这三款应用程序由同一家软件开发公司制作,已经被下载了数十万次。这家公司否认这些应用程序是抄袭之作。
Clones are 'becoming a real problem for us,' said Neeraj Arora, WhatsApp's business chief. 'It does damage to our brand and creates confusion.' It also costs WhatsApp revenue, he said.
WhatsApp公司业务总裁阿罗拉(Neeraj Arora)说,克隆行为正在成为我们面临的一个真正的问题。它破坏了我们的品牌,让用户感到困惑,而且还影响了WhatsApp的收入。
WhatsApp is priced at 99 cents on Apple Inc.'s app store, and it is free on Google Android devices for the first year but then costs 99 cents a year after that. Many of the alleged WhatsApp clones are free and
generaterevenue by showing ads.
WhatsApp在苹果(Apple Inc.)应用商店的价格是99美分,在谷歌的安卓设备上第一年使用是免费的,此后每年的花费是99美分。许多被指克隆WhatsApp的应用程序都是免费的,通过广告展示创造收入。
There is little data on how many cloners exist and how much money they are reaping, but the practice can take many forms. Some cloners simply copy the images of a
well-known app or use the app's name to cash in on the original app's popularity.
几乎没有数据可以显示存在多少克隆应用,以及它们攫取了多少利润,但是这种行为可以以多种形式发生。一些克隆者简单地模仿一个流行的应用程序的图像,或是使用这款应用程序的名字,从而利用原创应用程序的知名度。
Others employ special software to copy the app in its entirety and swap out its automated
advertising provider with one of their own choosing, allowing them to
generate ad
revenue that would
otherwise flow to the
legitimate app maker.
还有一些克隆者利用特殊软件全盘复制一个应用程序,将原来应用程序的自动广告提供商换成他们自己选择的广告商,这样一来就可以创造广告收入,而这些收入本来应该属于合法的应用程序开发商。
Still other perpetrators copy apps and
inject them with
malicious software that causes a victim's phone to
automatically send
costly text messages.
还有一些克隆者复制应用程序,然后在程序中安插恶意软件,这类软件可使被感染的手机自动发送高价短信。
App developers said cloning is typically a bigger problem in countries such as China, where the official Google Play app store isn't available. But developers said cloning is also
prevalent in top mobile-app stores run by Apple, Google, Microsoft Corp. and Amazon.com Inc. Those four companies declined to provide data on the cloning issue.
一些应用程序开发公司说,在中国这样的国家,克隆问题一般更加严重,在中国,人们无法使用官方的谷歌Play应用商店。但是应用程序开发公司说,在苹果、谷歌、微软(Microsoft Corp.)和亚马逊(Amazon.com Inc.)运营的顶级移动应用商店,克隆行为也很猖獗。这四家公司拒绝提供有关克隆问题的数据。
Among those app stores, developers said cloning is most
widespread in Google Play. Google,
unlike the others, doesn't use humans to vet new apps before they are
available for download. A Google spokeswoman declined to
comment on how common clones are in Google Play.
应用程序开发公司说,在这些应用商店中,谷歌Play的克隆应用程序最为普遍。与其他公司不同,谷歌在应用程序登陆应用商店之前不对其进行人工审查。谷歌的一名发言人拒绝评论克隆应用程序在谷歌Play中有多常见。
Still, spokespeople for Google and Microsoft said victims of cloners can file app-takedown requests and that the companies
automatically encrypt many new apps to help prevent some forms of cloning. Amazon declined to comment.
尽管如此,谷歌和微软的发言人说,受害者可以提出请求将克隆应用撤下,并且说其公司会自动为很多新应用加密,以便帮助防止某些形式的克隆。亚马逊拒绝置评。
Apple, meanwhile, generally connects the alleged
victim of a cloned app -- the developer of the original app -- with the alleged perpetrator via email and asks them to sort out the dispute, said developers who have gone through the process. If there is no resolution, Apple will decide whether to pull down the alleged cloned app, developers said.
与此同时,据参与过和解磋商过程的开发者说,苹果通常用电子邮件把克隆应用的受害者(即原版应用的开发者)和被指的侵权者连在一起,请他们就争端达成和解。开发者说,如果无法达成和解,苹果将决定是否把被指克隆的应用撤下。
For developers, a cloned app can take months to remove. David Barnard, a 34-year-old developer from San Marcos, Texas, fended off several alleged copycats in the Apple app store over the past year.
对开发者来说,一款克隆应用可能需要数月的时间才能撤下。得克萨斯州圣马科斯的34岁开发者巴纳德(David Barnard)过去一年请求苹果应用商店撤下了数款被指抄袭的应用。
Mr. Barnard's Launch Center app helps iPhone and iPad users create shortcuts so they can perform tasks more quickly. The alleged copycats, called Quick Launch and Voice Launch Pro, surfaced last spring.
巴纳德的Launch Center应用可以帮助iPhone和iPad用户创建捷径,进而更快地完成任务。被指的克隆应用Quick Launch和Voice Launch Pro是去年春天出现的。
Last May, Mr. Barnard emailed a
complaint to Apple. Apple encouraged Mr. Barnard to work it out with the apps' creator, Jiqun Zheng. Apple was copied on the emails between Mr. Barnard and Mr. Zheng, who argued that many apps had 'similar features.' The Wall Street Journal reviewed the emails. By late August, Apple informed the parties it would remove Mr. Zheng's two apps from its store, and later removed them. In an email, Mr. Zheng, who
separately created a successful app called the Mercury Browser that even Mr. Barnard said he enjoys, said the now-removed apps were inspired by 'some other apps' and had
unique features. He said they generated up to $2,000, but it cost more than that to build them.
去年5月,巴纳德向苹果发了一封电子邮件投诉。苹果鼓励巴纳德与应用的开发者郑继群(音)达成和解。巴纳德与郑继群之间的电子邮件都抄送给了苹果。郑继群说,很多应用都有类似的功能。《华尔街日报》看过这些电子邮件。截至去年8月底,苹果通知双方,苹果将从其应用商店中撤下郑继群的两款应用,之后确实撤下了应用。在一封电子邮件中,郑继群说,他现已被撤下的应用受到了其他一些应用的启发,拥有独特的功能。他说,这些应用创造了最多2,000美元的收入,但开发费用比这要多得多。郑继群另外开发了一款名为Mercury Browser的成功应用,就连巴纳德都说他喜欢这款应用。
As for WhatsApp, it is
working to remove alleged cloned apps from the Google Play store and said Google's policy-enforcement team has been 'responsive.'
至于WhatsApp,该公司正在努力请求谷歌Play商店撤下被指克隆的应用,该公司说谷歌的政策执行团队一直在积极回应。
The developer of three of the alleged WhatsApp clones, which
generaterevenue with ads, calls himself Freek Martens and said he is from the Netherlands. In an email, he said he makes 'just enough'
revenue from ads on the app 'to cover the expenses and
finance new projects,' but he declined to be specific.
三款被指克隆WhatsApp产品的应用的开发者自称Freek Martens,并且说自己来自荷兰。在一封电子邮件中,他说他通过在这款应用上打广告只赚得了足够的收入来支付费用和为新项目提供资金,但他拒绝详细说明。WhatsApp通过广告创造收入。
The developer, who denied the apps are copycats, acknowledged he didn't have the right to use WhatsApp's name and that some people might think his apps were
officially associated with the original WhatsApp.
这位开发者否认应用是抄袭之作。他承认自己没有使用WhatsApp名称的权利,并且承认一些人可能认为他的应用与原版WhatsApp应用有着正式的联系。
But he argued his apps help WhatsApp because users of his products can make new contacts that then get stored on their phones. If those users later turn on the original WhatsApp app, WhatsApp will be able to scan those users contacts list and allow them to chat with more contacts using WhatsApp, he said.
但他说,他的应用可以帮助WhatsApp,因为使用他的产品的人能够建立新的联系人,这些联系人的名单可以储存在用户的手机上。他说,如果那些用户后来改用原版WhatsApp应用,WhatsApp将能够扫描这些用户的联系人名单,使用户能够用WhatsApp和更多的联系人聊天。
WhatsApp's Mr. Arora disagrees. 'We don't want more developers using these tactics,' he said. 'It dilutes the experience WhatsApp is looking to provide to its users.'
WhatsApp的Arora不同意这种说法。他说,我们不希望更多的开发者使用这种做法。它会稀释WhatsApp力争向用户提供的体验。