Antutu is one of the most popular benchmarking apps for Android, offering phone and tablet owners an easy way to compare their performance across all devices. However, the three Antutu benchmarks have been removed from the Play Store, possibly as part of the wider crackdown on apps from famed developer Cheetah Mobile.
The three applications concerned are Antutu 3DBench, Antutu Benchmark and AItutu Benchmark. According to the AppBrain analysis service, the last update of the AI reference application was on February 13 and the regular application was updated on February 7. It is not known exactly when the deletions took place, although the regular Antutu app will be available as recently as February 22.
Antutu appears to belong to Cheetah Mobile.
We contacted Antutu to ask why its apps were removed, but we may already know why – the privacy policy link on the latest available list of apps points to the Cheetah Mobile website, indicating that ‘Antutu probably belongs to CM. Google removed all Cheetah Mobile apps from the Play Store last month after years of repeated policy violations, and if Antutu belonged to Cheetah Mobile, that would explain why the Antutu credentials disappeared. Antutu’s website makes no reference to Cheetah Mobile (there is even a completely separate privacy policy), but the Tianyancha Business Database lists Fu Sheng as president / director of Beijing Antutu Technology Co. – the same person who serves as CEO of Cheetah Mobile.
AnTuTu appears to have taken note of the removal, as some of the download links from the Play Store on its website have been replaced with simple APK links. We will update this message if we get a response from the company.
Antutu responds
Antutu has responded to our request to remove its applications. Here is the full statement from Antutu CEO Zhao Chen. (All of the emphasis below comes from the original email and is not ours.)
We received a notification email from Google on March 7 informing us that AnTuTu was one of Cheetah Mobile’s associated publisher accounts, all AnTuTu apps have been removed from the Play Store. But in fact, we think there is a misunderstanding about it. Antutu is NOT the Cheetah Mobile associated account !!
AnTuTu was founded in 2011, even before Cheetah Mobile, and is one of the first developers of Google Play. Cheetah Mobile invested in us around 2014 and has become one of our shareholders since then. However, we still maintain a considerable account of actions and independent functioning of the company as well as our own independent Google Play account. Cheetah Mobile has never touched our Google Play account, and AnTuTu has not promoted Cheetah Mobile software.
We believe that the reason for Google’s error in judgment is that we purchased and used the legal services of Cheetah Mobile, so our privacy policy link used the address of cmcm.com. This is what we are working on, including the change of legal supplier.
Regarding Fu Sheng as president / director of Beijing AnTuTu Technology Co., Ltd., this is due to the demands of the investors. In fact, many Chinese companies have such requirements when investing. When stocks reach a certain percentage, investors will need to change government registration documents. The company is currently operated by the Henan branch of Beijing AnTuTu Technology Co., Ltd. (https://www.tianyancha.com/company/3222572910), and Fu Sheng does not really participate in the operation or management of AnTuTu. Anyway, we informed the investor Cheetah Mobile asking them to resolve these problems caused by them.
We hope Google can carefully review the AnTuTu account and finally resolve this misunderstanding as soon as possible.
This may be a mild misunderstanding, but I would always stay away from these apps. Referral apps are useless to the vast majority of people out there, and even if you are really adamant about trying one, there are several other alternatives on the Play Store without great associations with Cheetah.
