One of our favorite benchmark tools on mobile is gone. AnTuTu can no longer be found on the Google Play Store. We’re not that surprised. We knew it would happen soon because the app is known to be a product of Cheetah Mobile. the infamous app developer is being hunted down for its apps. The app crackdown is happening and all three AnTuTu mobile apps have been affected. You can no longer access or download AnTuTu from the Play Store. When you check the AnTuTu website, you can only see APK links.
All three apps–Antutu Benchmark, Antutu 3DBench, and AItutu Benchmark have been affected. It’s not known when Google removed the mobile apps for the Play Store exactly. The last update for the AI benchmark app rolled on on February 13 while AnTuTu regular received an update on February 7. AnTuTu was noted to be available as of February 22 so the removal may only be very recent.
AnTuTu isn’t popularly known as a Cheetah Mobile product. Some links just indicate to CM’s possible ownership. In case you didn’t know, Google has removed all of Cheetah Mobile apps due to policy violations.
Cheetah Mobile and Beijing Antutu Technology Co. are listed with having the same CEO–Fu Sheng as the chairman and manager. There may not be any mention of Cheetah Mobile but it’s clear.
AnTuTu has sent in a statement from Zhao Chen, AnTuTu CEO. Read on:
We received a notification email from Google on March 7th informing us that AnTuTu was one of the related publisher accounts of Cheetah Mobile, all AnTuTu apps were removed from the Play Store. But in fact, We think there is some misunderstanding about it. Antutu is NOT the related account of Cheetah Mobile!!
AnTuTu was founded in 2011, even before Cheetah Mobile, and is one of the earliest Google Play developers. Cheetah Mobile invested in us in around 2014 and became one of our shareholders since then. However, we still retain a considerable account of shares and Independent operation of the company as well as our own independent Google Play account. Cheetah Mobile has never touched our Google Play account, and AnTuTu has NOT done any promotion of Cheetah Mobile’s software.
We believe that the reason for Google’s misjudgment is that we purchased and used the legal services from Cheetah Mobile, so our privacy policy link used the address of cmcm.com. This is what we are working on, including changing legal suppliers.
Regarding Fu Sheng being the chairman / manager of Beijing AnTuTu Technology Co., Ltd., this is because of the requirements of the investors. In fact, many Chinese companies have such requirements when investing. When the shares reach a certain percentage, investors will require changes in government registration documents. The company is actually operated by Beijing AnTuTu Technology Co., Ltd. Henan Branch (https://www.tianyancha.com/company/3222572910), and Fu Sheng does not actually participate in the operation or the management of AnTuTu. Anyway, we have informed the investor Cheetah Mobile asking them to solve these problems caused by them.
We hope that Google can examine AnTuTu’s account carefully and finally resolve this misunderstanding as soon as possible.”
So it’s not true. Now we want to know why AnTuTu apps have been removed.