stefanpledl

How a Handful of Developer Networks Took Over the "Cast to TV" Category on Google Play

By Stefan Hurzlmeier (@stefan_pledl) — March 31, 2026

I'm the developer of LocalCast, a casting app for Android. I've been competing in the "Cast to TV" / "Screen Mirroring" category on Google Play for years.

Recently, I noticed something: the ads showing up inside my own app were all for competing casting apps — and they all looked suspiciously similar. Same ad style, same kind of app, all targeting LocalCast users specifically. I collected 16 of these apps and started digging into who was behind them.

What I found was worse than I expected: a small number of developer networks — primarily based in Vietnam and Pakistan — operating 280+ apps across dozens of fake developer accounts, racking up a combined 1.8 billion installs through systematic Play Store manipulation. And they're all running coordinated ad campaigns targeting competing apps l

henk23

# /etc/caddy/Caddyfile

{
	log {
		output file /var/log/caddy/caddy.log
		format json
	}
}

(logging) {

mjf

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joeharr4

#!/bin/bash

# ssh-cipher-benchmark.sh - Assesses speed of SSH encryption between specific hosts.
# Usage:
# ssh-cipher-benchmark.sh <remotehost> [ciphers]
# Default ciphers: all we can find...
#
# Note: In some cases, the first cipher tested runs faster than the others, regardless of order.
# Cause of this is not known, but changing the order of testing shows it to be true.  Run the
# first one twice if you suspect this.  Perhaps it is due to buffering?

koo5

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