Cheetah Mobile Explained

Cheetah Mobile Inc.
Native Name:猎豹移动公司
Type:Public
Location City:Beijing
Location Country:China
Key People:Sheng Fu (CEO)
Industry:Mobile apps, mobile gaming, internet security
Revenue: US$26.4 million (Q1 2024)[1]
Operating Income: US$ -11.2 million (Q1 2024)
Net Income: US$ -11.1 million (Q1 2024)
Parent:Kingsoft[2]
Subsid:OrionStar Robotics,[3] Kika Tech,[4] Live.me Inc.,[5] PhotoGrid Inc.[6]
Assets: US$793.4 million (2023)
Num Employees:1,178

Cheetah Mobile Inc (Chinese: 猎豹移动公司) is a Chinese mobile internet company incorporated in the Cayman Islands and headquartered in Beijing.

History

Chen Rui (陈睿 current CEO of Bilibili) founded Cheetah Mobile.[7] The company was established in 2010 as a merger of Kingsoft Security (where Chen served as General Manager) and Conew Image (which was founded by Sheng Fu).[8]

In 2014, Cheetah Mobile launched an IPO selling 13 million American depositary shares at US$14 per share, and thereby raised US$168 million.[9] The IPO was managed by Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan Chase & Co., and Credit Suisse Group.[10] Kingsoft and Tencent are major investors in Cheetah Mobile, holding 54% and 18% respectively.[11]

In the late 2015, Cheetah Mobile announced that it had entered into a global strategic partnership with Yahoo. The company incorporated Yahoo's search and native advertising platforms within its own apps.[12]

In February 2016, Cheetah Mobile and Cubot launched the CheetahPhone,[13] an Android 6.0 Marshmallow based smartphone, at MWC in Barcelona, Spain.[14]

On April 1, 2015 Cheetah Mobile acquired French mobile advertising firm MobPartner, valued at $58 million. On August 2, 2016, Cheetah Mobile announced its acquisition of a French startup News Republic for $57 million. News Republic is a news aggregator.[15] [16]

In March 2020, Cheetah Mobile was banned from Google Play due to their scheme of ad fraud, resulting in all of their games being removed as part of a 600 app deletion.[17]

In September 2022, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charged the company's CEO and former President with insider trading. The SEC found that Sheng Fu, CEO, and Ming Xu, then-President and CTO of Cheetah Mobile, established a trading plan after learning of a significant drop in advertising revenues from their largest partner. In 2016, they sold 96,000 Cheetah Mobile shares under this plan, avoiding losses of approximately $203,290 and $100,127, respectively. Sheng Fu also made misleading public statements about the company's revenue trends and failed to disclose negative revenue trends in its 2016 reports. Both Fu and Xu violated antifraud provisions of the Securities Exchange Act, with Fu also violating provisions of the Securities Act, leading to cease-and-desist orders and civil penalties of $556,580 for Fu and $200,254 for Xu.[18]

Controversies

It was reported in 2014 that ads promoting Clean Master manipulate Android users with deceptive tactics when browsing websites within the app's advertising framework. In April 2014, Ferenc László Nagy from Sophos Labs captured some pop-up ads that led to Clean Master, warning the device had been infected with a virus.[19]

In July 2014, Cheetah Mobile encouraged users to uninstall Google Chrome and replace it with Cheetah Mobile's own browser during Clean Master's clean up and optimization process. This practice allowed Cheetah Mobile to gain unfair position in the marketplace and led to a Google crackdown.[20]

In December 2018, Cheetah Mobile was implicated in a massive click fraud scheme,[21] leading Google to remove two of its apps from its Play Store.[22] Cheetah Mobile has denied the charges.[22] In February 2020, Google banned nearly 600 apps on the Play Store including all Cheetah Mobile's apps "for violating our disruptive ads policy and disallowed interstitial policy."[23] [24]

As of 10 March 2020, all apps made by Cheetah Mobile, along with the benchmarking AnTuTu apps, have been banned from the Google Play Store.[25]

Cheetah Mobile's web browser mobile app, CM Browser, was banned in India on 29 June 2020 in the aftermath of the 2020–2021 China–India skirmishes.[26]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Cheetah Mobile Announces First Quarter 2024 Unaudited Consolidated Financial Results . 2024-06-07 . Cheetah Mobile .
  2. Web site: ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE RESULTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2016 OF A SUBSIDIARY — CHEETAH MOBILE INC.. 16 May 2024.
  3. Web site: Cheetah Mobile Further Invests in Beijing OrionStar . cmcm.com . 16 May 2024 . Founded by Mr. Sheng Fu, Beijing OrionStar is an AI service solution provider headquartered in Beijing focusing on the research and development of AI. Beijing OrionStar became a subsidiary of the Company in December 2023, following the Company's acquisition of its controlling stake..
  4. Web site: Khandelwal . Swati . 8 Popular Android Apps Caught Up In Million-Dollar Ad Fraud Scheme . thehackernews.com . 16 May 2024 . Cheetah Mobile—a prominent Chinese app company, known for its popular utility apps like Clean Master and Battery Doctor—and one of its subsidiary Kika Tech have allegedly been caught up in an Android ad fraud scheme that stole millions of dollars from advertisers..
  5. Web site: Cheetah Mobile’s Live.me streaming service raises $60M from Chinese investors . techcrunch.com . 28 July 2024.
  6. Web site: Cheetah Mobile's Photo Grid app awarded Best Lifestyle App by Best Mobile App Awards . prnewswire.com . 28 July 2024.
  7. Web site: Management Bilibili. 2020-07-07. ir.bilibili.com. en. 2020-07-07. https://web.archive.org/web/20200707041820/https://ir.bilibili.com/corporate-governance/management/. dead.
  8. Web site: Company Information . 2015-04-05 . CMCM . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20150410103211/http://www.cmcm.com/en-us/about/ . 2015-04-10 . Kingsoft Security and Conew Image merged into Kingsoft Internet Software in November, 2010, and then changed its name into Cheetah Mobile.
  9. Web site: Company IPO Overview - Cheetah Mobile Inc. (CMCM) IPO . 2015-04-05 . . . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20150318023556/http://www.nasdaq.com/markets/ipos/company/cheetah-mobile-inc-931330-75050 . 2015-03-18 .
  10. Web site: Cheetah Mobile Gains in Trading Debut after $168 Million IPO . May 9, 2014 . April 5, 2015 . . . Picker . Leslie . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20150525145744/http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-05-08/china-s-cheetah-mobile-raises-168-million-in-u-s-share-sale . May 25, 2015 .
  11. Web site: IPO Preview: Cheetah Mobile . May 7, 2014 . April 5, 2015 . . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20150205005222/http://seekingalpha.com/article/2200503-ipo-preview-cheetah-mobile . February 5, 2015 .
  12. Web site: Cheetah Mobile says its Yahoo search and advertising partnership shows early promise. 2015-11-17. 2015-11-20. VentureBeat. Yeung. Ken. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20160819195637/http://venturebeat.com/2015/11/18/cheetah-mobile-says-its-yahoo-search-and-advertising-partnership-shows-early-promise/. 2016-08-19.
  13. Web site: Phone - Hands On. . 2016-03-01. Video. 2016-03-18. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20160326154455/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jpmqa2uQ8xo. 2016-03-26.
  14. Web site: Cubot and Cheetah Mobile unveil the CheetahPhone, headed to Europe for €199. 23 February 2016. GSM Arena. 18 March 2016. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20160309122908/http://www.gsmarena.com/cubot_and_cheetah_mobile_unveil_the_cheetahphone_headed_to_europe_for__euro199-news-16852.php. 9 March 2016.
  15. Web site: Cheetah Mobile acquires News Republic for $57 million. Dillet. Romain. 2016-08-02. TechCrunch. 2016-08-02. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20160803235545/https://techcrunch.com/2016/08/02/cheetah-mobile-has-acquired-news-republic-for-57-million/. 2016-08-03.
  16. News: Cheetah Mobile to accelerate move into content after News Republic acquisition. 30 August 2016. South China Morning Post. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20160826145510/http://www.scmp.com/tech/china-tech/article/2007752/cheetah-mobile-accelerate-move-content-after-news-republic. 26 August 2016.
  17. Web site: February 20, 2020. Google Has Banned Almost 600 Android Apps For Pushing Disruptive Ads. January 21, 2022. Buzzfeed News.
  18. Web site: September 21, 2022 . SEC Charges Cheetah Mobile's CEO and its Former President with Insider Trading . 2022-09-22 . www.sec.gov.
  19. Web site: Google takes aim at deceptive advertising of Play Store apps. 4 April 2014 . 2015-04-30. Sophos. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20150424052211/https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2014/04/04/google-takes-aim-at-deceptive-advertising-of-play-store-apps/. 2015-04-24.
  20. Web site: A Potential Impaling Blow To Cheetah Mobile As Flagship Product Removed From Google's App Store Rankings. 31 July 2014 . 2015-04-30. Seeking Alpha. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20150425000706/http://seekingalpha.com/article/2363585-a-potential-impaling-blow-to-cheetah-mobile-as-flagship-product-removed-from-googles-app-store-rankings. 2015-04-25.
  21. News: These Hugely Popular Android Apps Have Been Committing Ad Fraud Behind Users' Backs . Silverman . Craig . BuzzFeed News . 2018-11-26 . 2019-05-11.
  22. News: Google Removed Two Popular Cheetah Mobile And Kika Tech Apps After An Investigation Sparked By BuzzFeed News . Silverman . Craig . BuzzFeed News . 2018-12-03 . 2019-05-11.
  23. Web site: Google Has Banned Almost 600 Apps For Pushing "Disruptive" Ads. BuzzFeed News. 20 February 2020 . en. 2020-02-21.
  24. Web site: Cheetah Mobile -5.9% on report of Google ban. Aycock. Jason. 2020-02-20. Seeking Alpha. en. 2020-02-21.
  25. Web site: AnTuTu benchmarks apps are no longer available on Google Play Store. 2020-04-17. GSMArena.com. en-US.
  26. News: 29 June 2020. Government Bans 59 mobile apps which are prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of state and public order.. Press Information Bureau, Government of India. 29 June 2020.

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