Cheetah Mobile Inc (猎豹移动公司) is a Chinese
mobile internet company headquartered in
Beijing. As of January 2017[update], it has more than 634 million monthly active users.[2]
History
Formation
Chen Rui (
zh:陳睿 current CEO of
Bilibili) founded Cheetah Mobile.[3] The company was established in 2010 as a merger of
Kingsoft Security (Chen served as General Manager) and
Conew Image,[4] and grew to be the second-largest internet security software provider in China, according to iResearch.[5] The company is located at 1st Yaojiayuan South Rd, Chaoyang District, Beijing, China.[citation needed]
In the late 2015, Cheetah Mobile announced that it had entered into a global strategic partnership with Yahoo. The company incorporated Yahoo's search and native advertising platforms within its own apps. As a result of this, Cheetah Mobile stated that its revenue generated from Yahoo increased by 30 percent daily within the first two weeks.[9]
On April 1, 2015 Cheetah Mobile successfully acquired acquisition of French mobile advertising firm
MobPartner, Values at $58 Million. On August 2, 2016, Cheetah Mobile announced its acquisition of a French startup
News Republic for $57 million. News Republic is a news aggregator.[12][13]
Ad fraud accusation
In March 2020, Cheetah Mobile was banned from Google Play due to their scheme of
ad fraud, resulting in all of their games being removed as part of a 600 app deletion.[14]
Clean Master for PC – It claims to improve performance by erasing junk files and optimizing device memory. A premium version is available that recovers lost files and updates drivers, among other claims. It is available for PC and Android.[16]
CM Browser – a web browser based on
Chromium, it claims to be the first dual-core security browser in China.[17][18]
Games
Big Bang 2048 – Similar to the game
2048, but with numbers replaced by animals.[19]
Just Get 10 – A puzzle where players tap adjacent tiles with the same number, which will then pop up. Tapping again merges the position to where it was tapped.[20]
Rolling Sky - A fast-paced game where players must roll a ball through different levels accompanied with many different types of music, primarily EDM. Formerly owned by TurboChilli, Rolling Sky became the most commercially successful game developed by Cheetah Mobile, garnering 400 million downloads worldwide.[23]
Tap Tap Dash - A fast-paced game where players must tap to keep their character from falling off the platform throughout different levels.[24]
Rolling Sky 2 - A fast-paced game where players run around obstacles and collect moons[citation needed]
Dancing Line - A
rhythm game to tap in the beat. A collaboration with another company Boombit, it shares many similarities with Rolling Sky.[citation needed]
Arrow.io - an archery game that ranges in 4 arenas.[citation needed]
Tap Tap Fish: AbyssRium - a marine aquarium game which the goal is to collect all the hidden fishes.[citation needed]
Battery Doctor – Claims to extend smartphone battery standby time.[25]
Clean Master – Claims to improve smartphone performance and free storage space by erasing junk files, optimizing memory, and providing full protection from viruses, trojans, and other malware. There is significant controversy online to whether the application is actually effective or not.[26][27][28][29]
Cloud Space of CM Security - A cloud backup tool to back up user's photos, call logs, contact information and SMS messages.
CM Swipe - A quick access tool for easy access to apps and tools with just one hand.[citation needed]
CM TouchMe - An assistive tool to quickly access system operations or apps, inspired by the assistive touch tool in
iOS.[citation needed]
CM Transfer - A file transfer tool to exchange photos, videos, music & apps offline.[citation needed]
CM QR Code & Bar Code Scanner - An ad supported QR code scanner tool hidden in QR & Bar Codes.[citation needed]
File Manager – Popular for Android, bought in early 2014 from Rhythm Software, which is based in Haidian, Beijing, PRC .[35]
GoTap! - A data management tool that claims to help users manage or reduce mobile data usage and battery.[citation needed]
Heartbleed Scanner - A heartbleed virus scanner application that scans the Android operating system to see if the device is vulnerable to the 2014
Heartbleed exploit.[citation needed]
Notification Cleaner - A notification manager tool.[36]
QuickPic Gallery – A photo gallery application.[37] Which was acquired from Q-Supreme team in 2015.[38]
Ransomware Killer - A ransomware virus killer application that claims to kill malware on an infected Android phone.[citation needed]
Simplelocker Cleaner - A locker cleaner application that performs a full scan of an Android device, and checks for example if a
Cryptolocker virus is present. Claims to use a special anti-hijack solution to remove an infection. [citation needed]
Speed Test - A WiFi speed test tool that helps scan WiFi connections, check the security and the speed of the connection, and then optimize the speed.[citation needed]
Struts 2 Web Server Scanner - A web server scanner application that scans browser history and detects whether recently visited websites are affected by the
Struts 2 flaw.[citation needed]
Stubborn Trojan Killer - A mobile antivirus application that claims to get rid of stubborn trojans that can't be deleted by other common antivirus apps.[39]
WhatsCall - A caller application with free global and secure calls.[citation needed]
2Face - An account management application for instant simultaneous access to two exact copies of applications such as social, gaming and messaging apps on a single device.[citation needed]
Juyun Technology - A new AI “cloud management business” for companies and personal use. Its official description is a “multi-cloud management service provider (MSP), the pioneer of cloud management services, is committed to becoming the most trusted partner for customer business innovation and digital transformation.”[40]
AI
Artificial Intelligence - AI technology platform to power Cheetah Mobile full line of products.[41]
OrionOS – a platform for smart devices in collaboration with OrionStar[42]
Cheetah Voicepod – a voice recognition speaker based on AI[citation needed]
Cheetah GreetBot - a receptionist robot to deal with customers[citation needed]
Cheetah FriendBot - an educational robot for children[citation needed]
Cheetah Ads - Cheetah Mobile's self-operated ad platform offering a wide range of ad formats, from high-performing display and native ads, to full-screen vertical video.[44]
International advertising business by Cheetah Mobile - New overseas advertising program. “Deeply cultivate overseas marketing services in China's e-commerce, games, applications, brands and other fields, trustworthy overseas partners of Chinese enterprises”.[45]
CheetahGo College - Online course for learning how to advertise well in different platforms.[46]
Big Data
Cheetah Data - a global mobile
big data analysis platform.[47]
Controversies
Despite the popularity of its Clean Master Android App, it was reported in 2014 that ads promoting Clean Master manipulate Android users with deceptive tactics when browsing websites within the app's advertising framework. In April 2014, Ferenc László Nagy from
Sophos Labs captured some pop-up ads that led to Clean Master, warning the device had been infected with a virus.[48]
In July 2014, Cheetah Mobile encouraged users to uninstall
Google Chrome and replace it with Cheetah Mobile's own browser during Clean Master's clean up and optimization process. This practice allowed Cheetah Mobile to gain unfair position in the marketplace and led to a Google crackdown.[49]
In December 2018, Cheetah Mobile was implicated in a massive
click fraud scheme,[50] leading Google to remove two of its apps from its Play Store.[51] Cheetah Mobile has denied the charges.[51] In February 2020, Google banned nearly 600 apps on the Play Store including all Cheetah Mobile's apps "for violating our disruptive ads policy and disallowed interstitial policy."[52][53]
As of 10 March 2020, all apps made by Cheetah Mobile, along with the benchmarking
AnTuTu apps, have been banned from the
Google Play Store.[54]
Cheetah Mobile's web browser mobile app, CM Browser, was banned in India on 29 June 2020 in the aftermath of the
2020–2021 China–India skirmishes.[55]