Mobile UA

Pop-art illustration of an AppLovin smartphone interstitial ad with a steep rising CPM curve, a June 2026 calendar page, and a $7B auction-demand price tag

AppLovin's $7B First-Year Math Explains Why the June Axon Window Closes Fast

AppLovin posted $1.84 billion in Q1 2026 revenue, up 59% year over year, and confirmed its Axon ad platform opens self-serve to all advertisers globally in June. CEO Adam Foroughi pegged the math at roughly $70,000 in first-year ad spend per new customer, which at 100,000 signups

Pop-art collage of an iPhone with a removed Freecash app icon, a TechCrunch email envelope, and a falling No. 2 App Store chart ranking.

Apple Pulled the No. 2 US App After One TechCrunch Inquiry

Apple removed Freecash, the rewards app that hit No. 2 on the US App Store, on April 13, 2026, after TechCrunch sent the company a press inquiry. Google Play followed two days later. The app had ranked publicly for over six months while collecting race, religion, sexual orientation, health, and

Pop art illustration of cracked smartphone screen with rewards app icon being removed from Apple App Store, data streams flowing out

Apple Pulled the No. 2 US App and Proved Rewarded UA Has a Trust Problem

On Monday, Apple removed Freecash from the App Store. The app had 60 million registered users, a 4.7-star rating from over 150,000 reviews, and hit No. 2 in the US App Store in February. It was also, according to TechCrunch and security researchers at Malwarebytes, collecting users'