Apple removes 9,600 Vietnamese apps from App Store

By Luu Quy June 3, 2025 | 04:14 pm PT

Vietnam ranked third globally in the number of apps removed from Apple’s App Store last year, with more than 9,600, most of them due to fraudulent activity.

According to the U.S. company’s 2024 App Store Transparency Report released recently, over 82,000 apps were taken down last year for violating platform policies or at the request of governments.

China topped the list with 12,900 removals, followed by the U.S. with 11,400.

Vietnam’s 9,664 was its highest figure since Apple began releasing transparency data three years ago. The numbers were 8,462 in 2022 and 5,064 in 2023, a contrast to the downward trend observed in other markets.

Most removals involved violations of the Apple Developer Program License Agreement, particularly related to user experience and fraud. Apple removes apps that engage in fraudulent practices, manipulate reviews or rankings, infringe on intellectual property, distribute Apple software without authorization, contain inappropriate content, or breach user privacy and data protection laws.

App Store app on Apple's device. Photo from Pexels

Apple prohibits practices such as fake reviews, deceptive app names, name squatting, and misleading pricing or feature claims. Interference with Apple services like the App Store, TestFlight and Xcode Cloud is also considered a violation.

By category, the most apps removed in Vietnam were in Utilities (2,615), Games (2,388) and Entertainment (1,318). While Apple did not explain the reason for the sharp increase, experts said it reflects a rapid growth in Vietnam’s app development, which has led to a flood of new ones, some with poor quality control.

"Markets with high app removal rates often have large software industries, such as the U.S., China and India," one expert pointed out. "These cleanups push developers into taking product quality more seriously."

Vietnam was among the top three countries in global app downloads as of April, with more than 5.6 billion, according to analytics firm Sensor Tower. The country has over 1,000 publishers and an estimated 100,000 people working in the app industry.

Apple began publishing the transparency report after a 2019 lawsuit accusing it of charging excessive commissions. It settled the case in 2021 with a US$100 million payout to support small developers and agreed to share annual data on App Store operations.

Last year overall app removals dropped to 116,117 from 82,509 in 2023. The App Store currently has more than 1.96 million apps, 51.7 million registered developers, average weekly visits of 813 million, 839 million app downloads.