Yakov Filippenko, Founder and CEO of Intch, faced a harsh experience when he woke up to find his company's app deleted from the Apple App Store. Despite attempts to communicate and search for reasons, no step succeeded in restoring the app immediately, highlighting a major strategic vulnerability facing tech companies: Platform Risk.
The numbers show the scale of these risks; in 2025, Apple removed 166,899 apps, and appeals only succeeded in restoring just 423 apps. This vast difference means that a single decision from a centralized platform could end a tech company's existence entirely without guarantees of return.
What Practically Changes During a Ban?
The impact of removing an app is not limited to preventing new downloads; it extends to destroying trust and financial flows through several paths:
- Loss of Trust: Current subscribers face questions about the service's credibility once the app disappears, damaging brand reputation.
- Revenue Stoppage: Platforms like Apple freeze funds due for the past three months and immediately stop recurring subscriptions, which could zero out the Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) for subscription-based companies.
- Erosion of User Base: Users who replace their phones will not be able to reinstall the app, leading to a permanent loss of customers.
Why is This News a Warning for Founders and Investors?
Filippenko believes that reliance on the app store should be treated as "infrastructure risk," much like a cloud service outage or the failure of payment systems. Relying on a single distribution channel that has complete control over access and financial collection makes a company's growth hostage to decisions over which the company has no authority.
The article emphasizes the need to include "Platform Exposure" in valuation and funding discussions, where investors must examine the company's ability to withstand a sudden decision by the platform to stop its services.
Confrontation Strategy: Building the Alternative Before It Is Needed
The lesson learned from the Intch experience is not to make "filing an appeal" a contingency plan, because the process may be slow or end in an outright refusal, as happened to them. The solution lies in Decoupling from the platform early through:
- Developing a Web Version: Providing an alternative way to access the service away from the stores.
- Diversifying Payment Channels: Building direct payment channels to ensure the continuity of financial flows even if store subscriptions stop.
- Pre-testing: Testing users' ability to use the web version and pay through it while the app is still available, to ensure a smooth transition during crises.
This approach not only protects the company from bans but also gives it greater technical flexibility, such as the ability to send updates faster and avoid the high commissions imposed by centralized stores.