Chinese mobile internet company
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]
Initial public offering
In 2014, Cheetah Mobile launched an IPO selling 13 million American depositary shares at US$14 per share, and thereby raised US$168 million.[6] The IPO was managed by Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan Chase & Co., and Credit Suisse Group.[7] Kingsoft and Tencent are major investors in Cheetah Mobile, holding 54% and 18% respectively.[8]
Post IPO
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]
In February 2016, Cheetah Mobile and Cubot launched the CheetahPhone,[10] an Android 6.0 Marshmallow based smartphone, at MWC in Barcelona, Spain.[11]
Acquisition
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]
Insider trading charges
In September 2022, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charged the company's CEO and former President with insider trading.[15]
Products
Cheetah Mobile's ad supported products include:
Computer applications
- 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]
- Don't Tap The White Tile – Players must avoid white tiles.[21]
- Piano Tiles 2: Don't Tap The White Tile 2 – The sequel of Don't Tap The White Tile, including new gameplay and songs.[22]
- 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]
Mobile applications
- AnTuTu[citation needed]
- Armorfly - A browser which claims to have high privacy and security.[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 Backup – A cloud backup service.[30][31]
- CM Browser – A mobile web browser with antivirus security functions.[32]
- CM Flashlight – An ad supported flashlight app with a built-in compass.[33]
- CM Keyboard - A keyboard application that allows customizing the phone's keyboard.[citation needed]
- CM Launcher 3D – Launcher only compatible with Android devices.[33]
- CM Locker - An Android lockscreen app. [citation needed]
- Security Master – An antivirus application for Android phones.[34]
- CM Security VPN - A free VPN application. [citation needed]
- CM Speed Booster - An Android optimizer.[citation needed]
- 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 VendBot - a vending machine robot[43]
Commercial
- 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]
US$764.6 million (2017)[1]