How android developers are pushed to buy reviews for their apps.

Hello

A few days ago I launched my new android application: a rain radar for Belgium, Netherlands, Germany and the UK. Now I have over 400 downloads and I'm really happy with that! More info about the app you can find here. Without any advertising I managed to get some downloads with a simple application. And for that, I give myself a A+.

But also I already got 5 emails from companies to either add advertisements or buy reviews. This is not the way I want to do it. Reviews should be real, not fake ones you bought. The prices are ridiculous. Here are some examples I got.

You can also see those emails are sent automatically due the fact they spell my name wrong, "J%C3%BCrgen" is not my name! In the last mail there is a brochure you can view with a nice marketing talk. A copy of the link you can find over here: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B79aYRbrrAA3Q3R3TndxWFp4R1U/edit.

In my eyes this is wrong. What if someone creates an app which is working just fine. Buys reviews, but adds a backdoor? And how much people are actually looking to the reviews in the Play Store? The first thing I check are the images.

But after all I got one email from a company which actually did download my app and asked friendly if I wanted to add advertisements. I gently replied I do not have any plans to add advertisements. So maybe not all the companies are bad.

Feel free to discuss over here in the comments!