A borrowed penguin: a VPN ranked #4 on the Russian App Store, with a name and icon copied from an Android hit

The #4 Top Free app in the Russian App Store is called "Ping VPN: быстрый и безопасный", but it is not the Ping VPN with 120M installs on Google Play. It was originally called fkey vpn, then changed to a name and a yellow penguin icon nearly identical to the Android hit, catching iPhone users who search for "Ping VPN", and earns money by only connecting after you watch ads. The tactic works, but the Russian VPN chart is already crowded with similar apps. What's worth learning is the playbook behind it, not this particular package.

Oct 28, a user tapped "Update"

On Oct 28, 2026, a Russian user gave it a 4-star rating in the App Store, titled "What happened after the update?":

"I accidentally tapped update on my iPhone, and now it's a penguin, the connect button is gone, and there are only ads 😢 This was the only VPN I could still use 😭"

That same day another 1-star review said: "I had one like this on Android before, it worked well and stayed connected." (App Store Russia reviews, 10-28)

These two reviews tell the whole story. This App ID already existed in March 2026 as "fkey vpn: Super Unlimited Proxy" (old name records exist on applecensorship.com and AppBrain), and in September reviews people still wrote "fkey" and "Fkey VPN". By late October, its name and icon had become the Android Ping VPN look. Users thought they were downloading their friend's Android version, but it wasn't.

How big the borrowed penguin is

Ping VPN on Android (package name com.pingsecure.client.app, developer Exyte ECM FZCO) launched in 2026 Feb 17. By Nov 6 it had 20.8M installs and 600K new installs per week (Google Play, 11-06). In Russian-speaking internet circles, "Ping VPN (yellow penguin)" has become a generic name. On otvet.mail.ru in Oct 1, someone asked, "Why has Ping VPN (yellow penguin) stopped working?"

Its website says there is an iPhone version, but it can't be found in the Russian App Store. So a brand that grew by word of mouth on Android at 600k per week left an empty space on iOS: friends recommended "the penguin VPN", iPhone users searched the App Store, and landed on this package.

The developer of this package is EdgeFlow Technology Limited, with a template landing page as its website. Whether it's the same team as Exyte is unclear: the domain, company name, and website don't match, so it's most likely an unrelated name-borrower (inference). The first line of the store description still names a different package, "VPN Planet 2026".

How big it has grown

• Since reaching #4 overall in Russia's Top Free and #4,10-28 in the Utilities Top Free chart, it has stayed between #4 and #9 on the overall chart (App Store Russia, 11-06).
• Across all stores, ratings count 10-28 is 2126,11-06 is 2768, adding 515 in the last 7 days, 20 to 120 per day; 2731 of them come from Russia, and Armenia and Uzbekistan together account for fewer than 40. This is an app with traffic only in Russia.
• Version 1.0.6, updated Oct 7, with release notes that only say "fixed bug / update metadata".
• It has no rank on the Top Grossing chart, so subscription revenue is probably small (inference).

Why Russia, and why now

The demand was forced by regulation. Russia's communications regulator has kept blocking VPNs, and by January 2026 had restricted 439 of them (expert.ru); at the end of March Apple removed protocol clients such as Streisand, V2Box, v2RayTun, and Happ from the Russian store on request (Meduza 03-28, RBC 03-31); mobile networks in various regions also run "whitelist" restrictions. What iPhone users want is simple: something still downloadable from the store, free, that connects with one tap, and that lets them use TikTok, Telegram, or ChatGPT. In reviews, one user said she needed a VPN to use ChatGPT: "everything else works, but after a week it asks for a subscription."

This demand shifts very fast: when one app gets blocked or removed, the next one takes its place immediately. So the spot on the chart doesn't belong to any product; it belongs to whichever package has the right name at the moment and is easiest to find.

Where users come from and where the money comes from

Users mainly arrive through App Store search, driven by three things:

1. Borrowed name. The name and icon match the Android Ping VPN, catching iPhone users who were referred by friends. This is the main reason it reached the top 5.
2. Keyword stuffing. Similar apps pack "ВПН / VPN / Быстрый / 2026 / 2027" into titles and subtitles, and appear alongside VPN Огонь and ВПН Зайчик in the "You might also like" section.
3. "Free VPN list" videos on TikTok. Searching "впн пингвин" turns up a batch of videos listing app names, one with the tags #огоньвпн #джампвпн has 330k views; I didn't find any video specifically promoting this iOS package, so it seems to have been picked up incidentally by these lists.

I couldn't find whether it runs paid acquisition.

Money comes mainly from ads, deliberately designed to be frequent: you watch several ads before connecting, the connection drops after a few minutes, and when it drops you watch ads again. Almost all the bad reviews are about this:

"It disconnects every 3 minutes. So you watch 4 ads, use the internet for 3 minutes, and then start over." (Russia, 11-02,1 stars)

"It connects fast, then drops on the dot after two minutes. The ads, though, run very well." (Russia, 10-26,1 stars)

Someone wrote in September: "The VPN is good, but it only connects to the Netherlands, other countries need VIP." Others say "I paid for the subscription and it still doesn't work." The VIP subscription exists, but the Top Grossing chart suggests it is secondary.

Ratings are propped up by in-app requests for good reviews. The App Store shows an average of 4.23, but among the 251 reviews with text, 1-star ratings number 85, about one third. One 2-star review said plainly: "Endless ads, and it asks you to leave a review. This is the review you wanted."

Who it's competing with

Among the top 25 overall free apps in Russia's App Store as of Nov 6, 9 are VPNs, mostly newer packages launched in 2026 that list Hong Kong or Chinese shell company names:

(App Store Russia Top Free overall, 11-06)

The #2 app, Happ Plus, uses the same trick, borrowing the name of Happ, the protocol client removed in March. It isn't the only one borrowing the Ping name either: the utilities #14 "ВПН, Ping - Speed pro" and another "ВПН -Ping VPN быстрый" are fighting over the same search term. The same developer also has several other packages such as GreenShield vpn 2026 and VPN Vpnfly Master 2026; the latter is already gone from the Russian store, a classic multi-package rotation.

Outside the store, TikTok and Telegram are full of paid "proxy airports" selling whitelist-bypass subscriptions that don't go through the App Store.

If it were you

One-line verdict: don't copy this package. It didn't win on product; it won on name. The same thing is already crowded in this category, and it could be removed by Apple at any time due to regulation or a complaint from the original brand. What you can take away is the playbook: find a brand or category that has already taken off on Android while the original brand is absent from iOS, then be the first on iOS to capture the search demand.

Who it suits: small teams that already have a VPN or utility template, can ship a new package a week, and have servers and an ad monetization channel; people familiar with the search habits in restricted markets (Russia, Iran, parts of the Middle East and Southeast Asia).

Who it doesn't suit: people who want a long-term brand and want to make money from subscriptions; people who can't handle packages being removed and having to rename and start over every few months; people without a server budget, since every user of a free VPN burns bandwidth.

How to do it: rather than borrowing a name, do the half where the original brand is missing. Each week, scan the fastest-growing utility apps on Google Play across countries, pick those with no official iOS version, and judge whether the demand can hold on iOS (VPN, cleaners, caller ID, and downloaders often show this gap). Build a version whose features match, with a name that doesn't infringe and a clear description of what it does, and load up on keywords in the local language. You can borrow the rewarded-ad model, but don't copy "disconnects after 2 minutes": a third of the 1-star reviews are complaining about it. Switching to "watch one ad for 30 to 60 minutes" is more likely to keep people (inference).

How to get users: local-language search in the App Store is the main channel. Write titles, subtitles, and keywords the way local users actually search (Russian users search "ВПН" and "впн пингвин", not English); then find local small accounts on TikTok that make "free VPN / good apps" lists and get yourself onto those lists.

How early you need to be: the Russian VPN window follows regulation. The next time Apple removes apps in bulk or the Android Ping VPN launches on iOS itself, this search traffic changes hands. For other "hot on Android, empty on iOS" opportunities, you usually need to move a few months before the original brand reaches iOS.

What would show you misread it: ① Exyte's Ping VPN officially launches in the Russian App Store and this package drops out of the top 50 within weeks, showing the borrowed traffic was never the demand itself; ② this package or several packages from the same developer are removed by Apple together, showing the name-borrowing route is being watched; ③ your chosen "iOS gap" gets no movement on the local chart a month after launch, showing the Android hit's users were never on iPhone to begin with.