[076]ChaseableiOS / Google Play · Russia · MexicoSubscription / lending / adsData as of 2026-11-08
The reverse: IPTV players, in-car video, VPNs, and small personal-loan apps.
D
Don't build: the money in all four is real, but the profit comes with takedown risk a small team can't absorb, or licenses and capital it isn't qualified to holdGo adjacent and build only the legal layer: loan calculators / price comparison (ads, affiliate), or wait until iOS 27 CarPlay video permissions and car-maker support are in place, then build a legitimate parking cinemaLong shot · grade and title drawn from the full piece · next review 11-17
| Background | A for-sale listing and the fattest solo sample on iOS charts: an IPTV player with $590k annual profit, and CarTV at #1 in the 22 store's Top Grossing |
|---|---|
| Upside | Nothing here for small teams: the money comes from piracy traffic, CarPlay exploits, censorship, and lending interest, not from software |
| Demand | Real demand, but grey: users buy M3U lists to find pirated content, want to drive while watching YouTube, need to get around Russian restrictions, or need money fast |
| Competition | On iOS, 173 apps and 158 companies charted with IPTV/M3U names. On Play, 316 VPNs. Lending is all licensed SOFOM. |
| Revenue | The ones making money are 2017–19-year-old businesses; the VPNs launched 2026 years ago are selling at $400–8,000 half a year in |
| Growth | Mainly store search. Loans rely on pure paid acquisition (True Finance has 2,642 ads running). Russia bans VPN ads |
| Window | The in-car video gap closed at the end of October with iOS 27.2; APTV was pulled after 5 days |
| Who it's for | Small teams don't fit; the only fits are acquirers, licensed local institutions, and VPN companies with security audits |
Latest
- 11-08India has another loan-app shell: QuickPocket IN got 320k installs on Google Play 70 days after launch, with 1,855 new ratings in a single day. The developer is registered under the name of a French pastry shop, PATISSERIE MARQUET. Like Mexico's MexDinero (13,499 ratings, 104 of 433 recent reviews one-star, with users saying they borrowed 1,150 and repaid 1,650, due in 6 days), these apps get traction by borrowing a company front and inflating ratings. The money comes from loan interest, not from the software itself.
- 11-07 Another Indian micro-loan knockoff: QuickPocket IN (Google Play developer name PATISSERIE MARQUET, a French pastry shop name) hit 320k installs in 70 days, with 1,855 new ratings in a single day. The shell-entity and rating-inflation playbook is unchanged, and this money still isn't something a small team can compete for.