Strange how popular benchmarking tool AnTunTu is no where to be seen on the Google PlayStore. AnTuTu 3D Bench, AnTuTu Benchmark and AITUTU Benchmark (the latter for the evaluation of artificial intelligence performance) have disappeared. Well, after the company made updates to its apps in February, everything disappeared. And the reason is probably the repeated policy violations by Cheetah Mobile, the owner of the apps in question.
Lets start from the beginning. It all comes down to who owns the apps. If you access the page of one of the apps (via WebArchive, the link HERE) and click on Privacy at the bottom, the Cheetah Mobile website opens. In other words: the ownership of AnTuTu belongs to that Chinese app development company. They are actually banned from the Play Store after accusations of advertising fraud and violations of privacy policies.
It should be noted that Google has not been cutting any slack towards Asian companies, even removing an article in which it tells and praises its success story, considered an example for the entire sector. The Cheetah Mobile apps were completely eliminated from the Play Store in February. So, the links to the virtual Android store on the official website have been replaced with APKs. It happened for example for Cheetah Mobile, and now the same thing has happened for AnTuTu.
According to investigations by Android Police in regards to the relationship between Cheetah Mobile and AnTuTu, reviled that although there is no reference of the former on the website of the latter, but Fu Sheng is the CEO of both companies. At this point, the doubts remain are few, and Google’s choice to delete the apps from the Play Store seems to go in the direction taken so far: ” No mobile Cheetah app on my platform”. Anyway, users should now download the APK files if they want to install the benchmarking app and test their devices.
