Table 1 Review guidelines for new applications on Apple’s App Store and Google Play

Mechanism

Mainly ex ante review

Mainly ex post review

Ex ante review method

Manual review

Automated review

(Randomly by manual review)

Ex post review method

Consumer complaints

Consumer complaints

Time period

1–4 Weeks

1–2 Days

Focus

The design of application icons and interfaces;

copyright of functions;

ad-Placement, payment and log-in compliance;

content validity and ratings

Content validity and ratings

The features of approved applications

Simple to operate;

elegant design;

creative functions

No obvious illegal content revealed by scans