TikTok clone Zynn is booted out of the App Store

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Zynn app
Zynn grew its user base in part by throwing around money.
Photo: Zynn

A Chinese video sharing app which ripped off was heavily inspired by TikTok in its design has been booted out of the App Store, shortly after it was removed from the Google Play Store due to reports of plagiarism.

Zynn not only closely resembled TikTok in its design, but also in much of its content. A previous report from Wired claimed that many popular TikTok users have had their content (and even knockoff user profiles) shared on the rival app. That didn’t go over well!

Zynn launched in the iOS and Android app stores at the beginning of May. Since then, it has proven to be very popular. As the image accompanying this post highlights, one of its key mechanisms was a payment-based reward scheme. This meant that users were paid for signing up and watching videos, along with getting friends to do the same. This has been criticized as a “pyramid scheme.”

A Zynn spokesperson told The Verge that the issue of the app’s removal is currently being worked out with Apple and Google. They claim it was due to complaints about user-uploaded video content, and the makers are “in communication with both Google and Apple to ensure compliance with their guidelines and regulations.”

The fact that other companies would want to latch on to the success of TikTok is no surprise. In April, TikTok reportedly raked in a massive $78 million on mobile. Another recent report noted that TikTok enjoyed the best quarter of any app ever in the first three months of 2020. It has reportedly been downloaded more than 2 billion times globally across both the App Store and Google Play Store.

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