VidMate was developed and owned by UCWeb, a subsidiary of Alibaba, prior to being sold off last year.Ī VidMate spokesperson who used the name Jiatao Chen on Skype told BuzzFeed News it takes the findings by Upstream seriously and blamed any alleged suspicious behavior on third-party software development kits (SDKs) and partners. “No only do we not program such practices into our core app, we have a zero-tolerance policy because it is in VidMate’s interest to protect our users against such detrimental practices,” he said.Ĭhen said VidMate already terminated its relationship with one partner implicated in the Upstream report, and continues to investigate. UCWeb and VidMate both told BuzzFeed News the app and its trademarks were sold to a new entity, Guangzhou Nemo Fish Technology Co., in 2018.
They said the companies maintain a business relationship but are separate. “Since our divestment early last year, we’ve maintained a business collaboration with Vidmate, just as we have with other apps that we are working with. We are not involved in any of Vidmate’s operations,” said an emailed statement from a UCWeb spokesperson.Ĭhen described Nemo Fish as a startup but declined to name its executives or shareholders during an interview, and did not respond to follow-up questions. A second VidMate spokesperson later contacted Buzzfeed News by email to repeat much of what Chen said, while also questioning Upstream’s methodology and findings. That VidMate spokesperson’s email account used the name Alice Granger, which is also the username of a Twitter account that sent thousands of spam replies to people in 2015 suggesting they download VidMate. Granger did not reply to follow-up questions about the Twitter account, or ones that asked for the names of Nemo Fish/VidMate executives and funders. Though it’s unclear exactly who owns and operates VidMate now, Krief said his company began blocking suspicious transactions from VidMate long before UCWeb sold the app. “We saw some first small volumes of suspicious transaction requests in October 2017 and it progressively ramped up until April 2018 when it then started being at a different scale,” he said. The UCWeb spokesperson said in an emailed statement that the company can’t respond without seeing more details and data.
“To date, Upstream has not contacted us or supplied us with the information upon which they are making their claims. “Overall, UC always seeks to provide a safe, secure and enjoyable user experience and has stringent rules and regulations in place to ensure that is the case.” On that basis, it is impossible for us to evaluate their assumptions,” the statement said. These findings are yet another example of a Chinese app allegedly committing ad fraud and abusing user permissions and data at a global scale.
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