Taxi medallion to "The Washington Post", medallions were "the best investment in America", but—due to increased competition from app-based car services and transportation network company growth from companies like Uber and Lyft—taxi medallions are now decreasing in price. In 2013, the price of a medallion was $625,000. In 2014, that price had risen to around $700,000. In 2014, a medallion was worth nearly $700,000. The total value of all medallions and assets related to them had a value of $2.5 billion in Chicago in 2013. In 2012, medallion prices ranged from $87,000 to $385,000. In 2015, Chicago's average medallion price was under
App store optimization call "black hat" ASO and are practices which the app stores do not condone. Black hat ASO includes falsifying downloads or ratings and reviews, perhaps by using bots or other techniques to make app stores (and their users) believe an app is more important and influential than it actually is. Apple has been proactively fighting against black hat ASO. In February, 2012, Apple released a statement as reported by "The New York Times" "warning app makers that using third-party services to gain top placement in App Store charts could get them banned from the store." Google followed Apple in 2015