Google pulls widespread however controversial dwell video chat app Chamet from the Play Retailer

Google has eliminated a well-liked however controversial dwell video chat app Chamet from the Play Retailer. The corporate confirmed the transfer to TechCrunch saying that the app violated its user-generated content material (UGC) coverage.

The corporate didn’t present an announcement however pointed to its coverage which says, “Apps whose main goal is that includes objectionable UGC will likely be faraway from Google Play.” The app was pulled from the Play Retailer someday final month.

Centered round dwell video streaming, Chamet supplied an choice to customers to privately name the host of a stream with a fee. A report from the Financial Occasions suggests Chamet and different apps had many ladies streamers who had been dancing to songs or simply speaking about their lives, which made them widespread. Aside from video calls, customers might additionally ship presents to those streamers by way of in-app funds.

Chamet tried to stray away from suggestive content material by warning its customers to not broadcast content material associated to “Pornography, violence, vulgarity, juveniles, and different associated conditions.” Nonetheless, the app was filled with suggestive content material and advertisements.

Final month, YouTuber Caleb Friesen tweeted a protracted thread about Chamet’s sketchy possession practices — beginning with the corporate’s barebones web site with little info.

Chamet was on the highest charts in a number of Play Retailer classes as a top-grossing app. And there’s knowledge to again it up. Customers in India spent greater than $13.4 million on Chamet between January—July, in response to the information shared with TechCrunch by analytics agency Knowledge.ai. It added that folks in India spent $15.4 million on Chamet final yr, with lifetime spending totaling as much as $38 million. The app garnered greater than 26 million lifetime downloads within the nation.

The agency’s knowledge instructed that whereas Chamet was a top-grossing app, different apps within the dwell video chat class akin to Azar, LiveU, and Honeycam Chat have raked in tens of millions. General, customers in India spent greater than $46 million final yr on this class of apps — greater than one other high-spending class of relationship which noticed an annual spend of $42.2 million.

Google didn’t specify if it plans to take comparable motion on different dwell video chat apps.