Mobile app developers and publishers are losing $3-4 billion dollars annually thanks to pirated apps, according to mobile advertising company Tapcore. Up to 14 billion app installs globally each year are pirated installs: stolen from their original creators.
But these pirates don’t fly the skull and crossbones. Instead, they are smart and highly-trained technologists.
The pirated app economy is almost entire invisible to consumers in Europe and North America, where almost everyone installs apps from two sources: Google Play and the iOS App Store. These apps are generally safe and generally kosher. App pirating generally occurs on third-party app stores in China and other counties.