Zero-rated app enters Israel Music Top Grossing at #23: a guitar community selling 5000 lira "packages" that is really what?
What it is A paid tipping-chat app published under a Turkish security company's developer account, disguised as a "guitar community," filed under Music, selling 10 tiers of coin packages.
Why it took off It didn't really take off: it has only 5 ratings worldwide. It charted because Music Top Grossing in regions like Israel, Belgium and Pakistan has a very low bar; a few large top-ups are enough. 11-05 appeared at the bottom of charts in 20 regions on a single day, which looks like a concentrated test buy (inference), right after the similar top package Toupi was pulled.
DHow you could follow Don't follow this one. The only takeaway: in small-market niche categories, chart thresholds are low enough that zero ratings can chart. A legitimate product in early launch can test paid acquisition cheaply in those regions and categories to get ranking exposure. Don't copy the shell accounts or the disguised theme.
- Data (updated daily) · Launched 2026-08-31 · UK rating 4 · 11-08 charted in 8 stores
iOS · best category chart rank · by store AustraliaUKJapanData 2026-11-02 → 2026-11-07 (6 days, 6 observations). Lower rank is higher; gaps mean it wasn't charted that dayiOS · Ratings count · UK Data 2026-11-02 → 2026-11-06 (5 days, 4 observations). Apple doesn't publish download counts; rating growth is a proxy for downloads.
In Nov 6, the #23 Music Top Grossing app on Israel's App Store was one called Matte. It has zero ratings in Israel. Its store page describes itself as 'a community for guitarists, teachers and people learning to play', but the in-app purchases are a '10-tier Matte package' with the top Turkish-store tier at ₺4,999.99 (about $120). The developer is a security company in Istanbul. This isn't a guitar product that took off. It's a paid chat package in a new shell, riding the low chart bar of the music category in small markets. Below I cover how it got on the chart, where the playbook comes from, and why you probably shouldn't follow it.
A guitar community built by a security company
The store description reads convincingly: "Matte is the guitar community for players, teachers, and learners... Share your latest cover, drop into pro tutorials... leave a tip in the comments." The subtitle is "Connect with music lovers," 16+, English only, filed under Music (App Store Israel and Turkey pages, 11-06).
Several details don't add up:
- The developer is KULE GUVENLIK HIZMETLERI LIMITED SIRKETI. Turkish business directories list it as a security services firm in Besiktas, and this is the only app under the account.
- The website mattefun.com is a one-page template that splits the store description into 5 sections with 5 images and no working features. The page went live in August 14.
- Released on Sep 1 1.0.0, updated on Sep 8 1.0.1 with release notes that just say "Fix bugs," then no updates for two months (App Store version history).
- In Israel, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, the UK and Egypt it is called "Make New Friends"; in Mexico, Japan, Germany and Korea it is called "Play, Learn & Bond." The dating angle only surfaces in some regions.
- Not findable in the US store; Apple's public lookup returns empty for the US. It is findable in Turkey, the UK, Israel and Saudi Arabia (11-06).
A real guitar community would not sell 10 tiers from ₺49.99 to ₺4,999.99 as "packages," nor would it only take "tips" in comments. This is the standard pricing structure for coin-tipping chat. What the app actually does (video chat, host rooms or something else) we haven't installed it to check, so it's unverified.
How it charted
All of it was on Music category charts, and it never entered any overall chart (App Store regional charts, 10-28 to 11-06):
| Store | Charts | Rank | Ratings at the time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Israel | Music Top Grossing | 11-02 #39 → 11-05 #27 → 11-06 #23 | 0 |
| Australia | Music Top Grossing | 11-04 #29,11-06 #108 | 0 |
| Belgium | Music Top Grossing | 10-29 #40 | 0 |
| Pakistan | Music Top Grossing | 10-31 #44,11-06 #128 | 0 |
| Egypt | Music Top Free | 11-05 #18 | 1 |
| Saudi Arabia | Music Top Free | 11-05 #25 | 0 |
Only 5 ratings worldwide: 4 in the UK, 1 in Egypt. Regions it charted in: 10-28 went from 3 regions, 11-04 from 4, then 11-05 suddenly jumped to 20, and 11-06 dropped back to 11. The new regions that appeared on 11-05, such as Austria, Spain, Japan, Korea, Germany, Mexico and Sweden, were almost all sitting at Music Top Free #140–195, and most fell off the next day.
How to read it: zero ratings yet charting in Music Top Grossing top 30 means people really are buying packages, but it also shows these regions' Music Top Grossing bars are extremely low; a few large top-ups a day is enough, so absolute revenue can't be large (inference). 20 regions appearing at the bottom on the same day and fading the next looks more like coordinated multi-country test buys than organic spread. We found no ads for it, and nothing about it on TikTok or X; this part is inference.
It's not the first, and won't be the last
On Matte's own UK store page, the "You might also like" recommendation is OnyaChat, a paid chat app disguised as "online karaoke." Packages of the same type keep appearing:
| Product | Launched | Scale | Shell | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Toupi - Hot Chat \ | Companion | 2026-06-03 | 10-28~10-30 charted in 71 regions, over forty regions on Music Top Grossing, best Music rank #3, Pakistan overall Top Grossing #154; about 3,446 ratings | Named Hot Chat, also filed under Music; disappeared from charts after 10-30, not findable in the US, UK, Turkey or Saudi stores (likely pulled, unverified) |
| OnyaChat | 2025 8–September | Still selling in the UK, 0 ratings | Online karaoke, developer is an individual account with a Chinese name | |
| Withe - Make New Friends | 2026-09-27 | Charted in 73 stores, best rank: #12,14 in Social (Tunisia) | Uses a Vietnamese labor-export company's account, filed under Social, disguised as a lifestyle community | |
| Ghee - Make New Friends | 2026-10-22 | Charted only in Tunisia, #147 | Same "X - Make New Friends" naming, moved to the Sports category | |
| Middle Eastern voice-chat rooms such as Yalla, Ahlan and SoulChill | Years ago | Middle East leaders | This is Matte's real peer: tips plus coins, but with real content and compliant at scale |
The timeline matters: Toupi dropped off the charts after Oct 30, and Matte started expanding to new stores in Nov 5. This looks like a "backup app rotation" playbook from the same kind of team: the lead app gets pulled, a stand-in takes its place. There is no evidence they're the same operator; the developers and bundle names don't match, only the playbook does.
As for real guitar products: Yousician, Fender Play, Ultimate Guitar, and ToneAdapt (launched in April, driven by TikTok creators, charted in 23 stores with 3,205 ratings) are not in the same business as Matte. Matte just borrows the guitar theme.
What this playbook actually makes money from
Broken down, it's four things:
- Category arbitrage: put a chat product in the music category. In music top-grossing charts in countries like Israel, Belgium, and Pakistan, a zero-rating app can crack the top 50 with a few top-ups, earning some store exposure.
- Shell accounts: borrow the developer account of an unrelated foreign company, one account per app, so if one app dies, only one dies.
- Avoid the US store, target the Middle East and small-language markets: less review and public pressure, and Middle Eastern users' habit of paying large sums for tips has been proven in the voice-chat industry for years.
- Cross-promotion through store recommendations: similar paid chat apps get bundled together in "You might also like."
These are well-known old tricks in the going-global voice-chat scene. Matte has no product differentiation; its only difference is the "guitar community" skin. It helped the app get through review and into a low-bar chart, but no users stayed because of guitars.
If it were you
D. Worth knowing about, not worth following. Matte isn't a product opportunity; it's a sample of a distribution playbook, and it hasn't even proven it makes money.
Why not to copy it: the real cost of this business sits outside the app: supply of hosts or chat companions, payments and operations in the Middle East, and a constant stream of throwaway accounts. Indie developers have none of that. These packages carry a high risk of violating App Store rules on disguised apps and sexually suggestive content (4.3, 1.1 and 1.2). Toupi reached 71 countries and over 3,000 ratings and still vanished overnight, so these apps live for months, not years. Similar packages keep appearing every month. Withe and Ghee both launched in 9–October. The market doesn't need you to join.
Who it fits: teams already running Middle Eastern voice chat, with host supply and payment channels in hand, who can absorb takedowns. They don't need this article.
Who it doesn't fit: indie devs who want a product that survives long-term; anyone who cares about developer account security.
What you can take away: not this app, but this observation: niche category charts in small markets have such a low bar that zero ratings can get you on. If you're building a legitimate product, early on you can test paid features and rankings in niche categories in countries like Israel, Belgium, or Pakistan, spend very little to get "#N in category X in country Y" exposure, then look at conversion. Regional launches that skip the most crowded US store can also be borrowed. Don't copy the shell accounts or the theme disguise.
Where this could be wrong: ① Matte survived 2027 years, and as of February it was still on the music top-grossing charts in several Middle Eastern stores, with ratings climbing into the hundreds: this suggests these apps last longer than assumed and deserve a second look; ② some indie devs with a legitimate interest community and tip-based monetization have reached similar rankings in music or interest categories: this suggests category arbitrage itself can be done compliantly, not only through shell apps.
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Data and sources: App Store Israel, Turkey, and UK store pages, in-app purchase lists and version history (11-06); Apple's public lookup API (US, UK, TR, IL, SA, 11-06); App Store music category charts and rating counts across storefronts (10-28 to 11-06); Turkish business directories (developer company); mattefun.com; TikTok and X searches. Places marked "inferred" or "unverified" are inferences.
Research notes: competitor table, acquisition evidence, full research report
- Competitors
Name Where Launched Scale How it differs from this one Toupi - Hot Chat | Companion(Mike Hussy) iOS 2026-06-03 10-28~10-30 charted in 71 stores, 42–44 of them on music top-grossing charts; best music-category rank #3, overall top-grossing #154 in PK; about 3,446 ratings; 10-30 onward dropped off the charts, lookup returns nothing Directly named with Hot Chat's borderline branding, two orders of magnitude bigger, now pulled; Matte swapped in a guitar-community shell OnyaChat iOS 2025-08/09 Still selling in the gb store, 0 ratings, appears in Matte's store page under "You might also like" Packaged as online karaoke, using personal accounts Withe - Make New Friends(SONA INTERNATIONAL MANPOWER) iOS 2026-09-27 Charted in 73 stores, best social-category rank #12,14 Placed in the social category, packaged as a lifestyle community, spread across more stores Yalla / Ahlan / SoulChill and other Middle Eastern voice-chat rooms iOS Years ago Top Middle Eastern voice-chat apps Same tip + coin model, but scaled compliantly with real content; Matte is shell-app arbitrage Yousician / Fender Play / Ultimate Guitar / ToneAdapt iOS Years ago to 2026-04 Tens of millions; ToneAdapt charted in 23 stores with 3,205 ratings Real guitar content and tools; Matte has no guitar features at all, it just borrows the theme - Where users come from
- Confirmed Category arbitrage (chat product placed in the music category, exploiting low bars on small-country charts): in il, Matte's rating count was 0 when it hit music top-grossing #23; the same playbook Toupi reached #3 in music
- Inferred Shell account / rotating disguised apps: the developer is an Istanbul security company, with only this one app under the account; the website is a template page; Toupi disappeared after 10-30, Matte expanded after 11-05, the timing lines up
- Confirmed Avoid the US store, focus on the Middle East and small-language markets: lookup us returns 0; charting concentrated in il/sa/ae/kw/eg/ye/pk
- Inferred Multi-country paid acquisition / test buys: 11-05 surfaced simultaneously in 20 stores in one day, ranking #140–195, and mostly fell off the next day; Meta's ad library doesn't track this category, so it can't be verified
- Confirmed Cross-promotion via store "You might also like": the gb store page recommends OnyaChat; pages for music apps like Veek recommend Toupi
- Inferred TikTok / X / media: TikHub and x-radar found no related content
Matte - Make New Friends (iOS id6798979855) research report
Date 2026-11-06. Data sources: our appstore database (app_day / app_profile / app_snapshot, from 2026-10-28), Apple's lookup API, App Store web pages (via Jina), mattefun.com, Jina search, TikHub (TikTok), x-radar (X), and the metaads library. Apple doesn't publish downloads or revenue, so the ranks and rating counts below are only relative signals.
Bottom line
Matte didn't really "break out." It was listed under a Turkish security company's developer account as a paid chat / tipping disguised app: the store page is packaged as a "guitar community," filed under Music, and earns money through a row of coin packs. It charted because the bar for music categories in Middle Eastern and small-language markets is very low, and from 11-05 onward a multi-country buy wave likely helped. Timing is notable: the same playbook, the head app in the same music category, Toupi - Hot Chat (charted in 71 stores, best music top-grossing #3) dropped out of our database after 10-30, and Apple's lookup returns nothing in us/gb/tr/sa (likely pulled). Within days Matte began expanding to new stores, looking like a "backup app rotation" from the same kind of operator.
1. What it is
- Store description: "Matte is the guitar community for players, teachers, and learners … leave a tip in the comments …". Subtitle "Connect with music lovers", 16+ (lookup reports 17+), with Unrestricted Web Access / User-Generated Content / Social Media (App Store tr page).
- In-app purchases: 10 tiers "Matte package 0–9", Turkish prices ₺49.99, 99.99, 249.99×2, 499.99, 999.99×2, 1,299.99, 2,499.99, 4,999.99 (App Store tr page). A "guitar community" selling "packages" at 5000 lira (about 120 USD) is a classic coin/diamond tip pack, not lessons or a membership subscription.
- The developer KULE GUVENLIK HIZMETLERI LIMITED SIRKETI is a security company in Istanbul's Besiktas district (Yandex Maps, bulurum.com, firmamaster and other Turkish business directories), with only this one app under the account (App Store developer page). A security firm publishing a guitar social app is strong grounds to treat it as a borrowed or bought shell account.
- The website mattefun.com is a single template page, published 2026-08-14, with content that just splits the store description into 5 sections with 5 images, and no real functional entry point.
- Bundle
com.matte.plb(plb = Play, Learn & Bond, the website title), English only; 1.0.0 launched in 2026-09-01, 1.0.1 launched in 09-08, update notes just say "Fix bugs," and no updates since (lookup). - Different storefronts show different names: il/sa/ae/gb/eg and others use "Make New Friends"; mx/jp/de/it/es/se/at/kr use "Play, Learn & Bond" (app_snapshot / app_name). The social selling point only surfaces in some stores.
- Not findable in the US store (lookup us returns 0), but tr/gb/il are findable. Avoiding the US and focusing on the Middle East is a common move for paid chat apps like this.
2. Data (appstore library)
- Total rating count 5: gb 4, eg 1 (11-06 new), de 1 (11-05 snapshot); all other stores are 0. Almost no organic downloads.
- Number of charting countries (daily_all_countries): 10-28 3 → 10-30 5 → 11-04 4 → 11-05 20 → 11-06 11.
- Best ranks, all on music category charts; it never made any overall chart:
- Israel music top-grossing chart: 10-28 free 46 → 11-02 top-grossing 39 → 11-05 top-grossing 27 → 11-06 top-grossing 23; rating count stayed at 0.
- Australia music top-grossing: 11-04 #29,11-06 #108. Pakistan music top-grossing: 10-31 #44,11-06 #128. Belgium music top-grossing: 10-29 #40.
- Egypt music free 11-05 #18; Saudi music free 11-05 #25.
- On 11-05, the storefronts that newly appeared (at, bg, bh, es, fi, it, jp, kr, de, mx, se, ye…) mostly ranked #140–195 on music free charts, and most had dropped off a day later.
- How to read these numbers:
- Israel, Australia, Belgium, and Pakistan all placed it on music top-grossing charts with zero ratings, suggesting someone is buying coin packs, but the bar on these storefronts' music top-grossing charts is extremely low (Israel's music top-grossing needs only #20 or so, a few large top-ups a day is enough). Absolute revenue won't be large.
- 11-05 surfaced simultaneously in 20 stores in one day, all ranking beyond the hundredth place, and mostly disappeared the next day, which looks more like ads or an offer wall running test buys across several storefronts at once than organic spread. There is no direct evidence; this is inference.
3. Competitors: the same playbook of "paid chat disguised as a music / interest app"
| Product | Platform | Launched | Scale (our database / store) | Difference from Matte | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Toupi - Hot Chat \ | Companion / Video & Joy(Mike Hussy,com.hukatou.pinine) | iOS music category | 2026-06-03 | 10-28~10-30 charted in 71 stores, of which 42–44 were on music top-grossing charts; tr/pk/lb/eg music category ranks #3–5; PK overall top-grossing #154, eg #183; about 3,446 ratings combined (us 631, sa 585, eg 315). After 10-30 they dropped off the charts; lookup returns 0 in us/gb/tr/sa | Name is literally Hot Chat, skirting the line; scale is two orders of magnitude bigger than Matte, but it's been pulled (inferred) |
OnyaChat (Yiping Ma, live.onya.app) | iOS music category | 2025-08/09 | Still sold in the gb store, 0 ratings, 17+; Matte's gb store page recommends it under "You might also like" | Packaged as "online KTV"; the individual dev account has a Chinese name | |
Withe - Make New Friends (SONA INTERNATIONAL MANPOWER…, a Vietnamese labor company, com.withe.lywx) | iOS Social category | 2026-09-27 | Charted in 73 stores, best rank #12 on tn, 14 ratings in total | Same "X - Make New Friends" naming, same garbled bundle suffix, same shell borrowed from a foreign non-tech company; placed in Social, packaged as a "lifestyle community" | |
| Ghee - Make New Friends (Vietnamese individual account) | iOS Sports category | 2026-10-22 | Charted only on tn, #147 | Same naming playbook, just a different category | |
| Real guitar communities / guitar-learning tools: Yousician, Fender Play, Ultimate Guitar, plus the new ToneAdapt (2026-04,23 stores, 3,205 ratings, TikTok creator promotion) | iOS / Android / web | Reached 2026 years ago | Tens of millions (long-established) | Matte has no real guitar content at all. It's not the same business; it just borrowed the theme as a shell. | |
| Big players / top voice-chat apps: Yalla, Ahlan, Haki, SoulChill and other Middle East voice-room apps | iOS / Android | Years | Middle East leaders | This is Matte's real competitor: tipping + coin packs. The leaders scaled legitimately; Matte is exploiting a loophole by wrapping a chat product in the music category. |
Bottom line: there are many "coin-tipping chat" products, and they're sitting in the recommendation slots on Matte's own store page. Matte has no product differentiation; it just swapped the theme (guitar) and the developer account.
4. Growth tactics
- Category arbitrage: putting a chat product in the Music category. The Music category has a low bar for Top Paid / Top Free charts in the Middle East and small countries; even zero-rating apps can hit the top 30 and gain store exposure. Evidence: il's Music Top Paid #23 had 0 ratings; Toupi was also in Music and reached #3. Confirmed.
- Shell accounts / rotating disposable packages: Turkish security-company accounts, one app per account, template websites, garbled bundles. Toupi disappeared after 10-30, Matte expanded to more stores 11-05, timing lines up. Whether the same operator is behind both is not confirmed (developer and bundle don't match, only the playbook does).
- Avoid the US store, focus on the Middle East and small-language markets: us doesn't list it; charting is concentrated in il/sa/ae/kw/eg/ye/pk. Confirmed.
- Suspected multi-country paid acquisition: 11-05 appeared at the bottom of charts in 20 stores on the same day, then faded the next day. Our Meta ad library can't find it (it only tracks tool-category keywords, so no result doesn't mean no spend); TikTok and X searches turned up no organic content. Unconfirmed.
- Store "You might also like" cross-promotion: the gb page recommends OnyaChat; pages for music apps like Veek recommend Toupi (Jina search results). This suggests store algorithms are bundling similar paid chat packages together. The recommendation link is confirmed; how much traffic it drives can't be quantified.
- TikTok / X / Reddit / media: no content found. A TikHub search for "matte app guitar" only returned real guitar apps like ToneAdapt and ToneMatcher; x-radar searches for "mattefun" and "Toupi" returned nothing relevant.
5. Visibility
Few people know about it yet. The only results are auto-generated Similarweb stats pages, App Store pages, and Turkish business directories. No one has publicly reported its revenue, and no media outlet or big X account has covered it. That said, the playbook itself (paid chat disguised as an interest app, borrowed shell accounts, Middle East focus) is a well-known pattern in the going-global voice-chat scene, with many similar packages and new ones appearing regularly (Withe and Ghee both launched in 9–October), so it's not unique.
6. Differentiation
It has no product differentiation. The only thing that's "different" is the wrapper: a guitar community + Music category, instead of simply calling it Hot Chat and putting it in Social. That wrapper is why it could get listed and charted: review is easier to pass, and it can rank in a low-bar category. But this is channel arbitrage, not users sticking around because of a "guitar community."
7. What to borrow
- Get chart exposure through low-bar categories × small markets: Music Top Paid charts in Israel, Belgium, and Pakistan, where zero ratings plus a few in-app purchases can reach the top 50. A legitimate product trying to cold-start could also test paid and chart performance in these categories and regions.
- One account per app, with backup packages ready to deal with takedowns. This is a gray-market tactic; legit products shouldn't copy it. But "list region by region and skip the most competitive US store" is worth borrowing.
- Risk warning: paid chat packages with a swapped theme often violate App Store 4.3 (duplicate / disguised apps) and 1.1, 1.2 (borderline content) rules; Toupi was likely pulled for exactly this. The lifespan of this approach is measured in months.
8. Still unclear
- Whether Matte, Toupi, OnyaChat, and Withe share an operator is unconfirmed (developers and bundle prefixes all differ; only the playbook matches).
- No evidence of paid acquisition or which platforms (Meta's ad library doesn't cover this category; TikTok's ad library only covers Europe).
- What the app actually contains (video chat, companion streamers, or a real guitar community): we didn't install it, so unverified.
- Revenue scale: we only know it reached Music Top Paid charts in a few low-bar stores; no dollar amount can be derived.
- Whether Toupi was pulled by Apple or removed by its developer: unverified.