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
Censorship of the iTunes Store configuration. Searches for 'VPN', for example, would cause the connection to be reset. According to the "Global Times", the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said on 13 December 2012 that it planned to "strengthen regulation of China's mobile applications market" in the near future. The Shanghai-based "IT Times" quoted Chen Jinqiao as saying that the plans included "[bringing] app developers under supervision and [establishing] a real-name registration system for independent developers. In 2013, Apple pulled several apps from the China App Store for containing books banned by the government. Several apps enabling users to bypass the Great Firewall and