We monitor 175 App Store storefronts to answer one question —
Is StarVip censored by Apple?
StarVip is gone from every App Store storefront we test. It was last seen available on Nov 13, 2020.
778 tests on record·last checked 2 days ago
Why it is unavailable
Five things can put an app out of one App Store. Each is weighed below against what can be seen from outside — open a card for the reasoning.
A government or a court demanded it
and Apple complied. Apple publishes a count of these per country each year and never says which apps they were. Apple's 2025 App Store Transparency Report
- Reference apps in the United States are unavailable at 2%, near the 5% for everything there, which cuts neither way.
- 7 other apps left mainland China the same day, Feb 28, 2022.
- Apple reports 1,213 government-ordered removals in Russia for 2025, naming none of them.
Apple applied a rule, unasked
either its own review guidelines, or its own reading of a local law, with nobody having demanded anything. This is the largest category in Apple's own removal figures by a wide margin, and it covers distribution permits as well as content — Apple kept a free Bible app out of mainland China in 2021 for want of one. Apple's 2025 App Store Transparency Report
- Reference apps in the United States are unavailable at 2%, near the 5% for everything there, which cuts neither way.
- 7 other apps left mainland China the same day, Feb 28, 2022.
The developer withheld it
freely, or under legal advice of their own, or because Apple's guidelines require that kind of app to be limited to certain countries. Switching a country off is easy for a developer to do in Apple's own tools: it needs no new version of the app, and it leaves no public trace other than the app being unavailable.
Something broke
a rejected update, a lapsed certificate, a payment or licensing problem, a mistake nobody has got round to noticing.
- 7 other apps left mainland China the same day, Feb 28, 2022.
- Gone for 4 years.
A local rule about paying for it
gambling licences, financial rules, tax — the kind of law that governs a transaction. Apple can obey every one of them by refusing the payment, which is why this is the only restriction we would accept and the only one that cannot touch a free app.
- It is free, so Apple sells nothing here.
How this is weighed, and what it cannot tell you
Weighed from the evidence under each card, not from a model. There is no published figure for how Apple's removals divide up, so these are ordered words rather than percentages. For scale on the same-day counts: across the whole record an app leaves a storefront with fewer than two others, so a dozen at once is not a dozen coincidences.
None of this is certain, and a citation does not make it so: Apple naming a Chinese agency tells you what Apple said, not everything that happened. What can be said is that the readings alone cannot separate these five — a developer switching off a country and a government ordering it removed arrive at Apple's catalogue looking identical — and that nobody has ever measured how they divide across the App Store. The one careful study of the question was done on Google's store, using an error message Apple does not emit.
Apple publishes no record of which apps are unavailable in which of its App Stores. For the removals it makes on a government's demand it publishes the agency and the law behind every one — 2,045 of the 166,899 apps it removed during 2025 — and never which app. Where a reason reaches the public at all, it is usually because a developer chose to say so. Apple's App Store Transparency Report
Know of a statement, notice or order we have missed? Tell us →
StarVip
Developer: jinpeng weng · Category: Reference · Released: Sep 3, 2017 · Rating: 0.6★
Other Reference apps missing from mainland China
Life of this app
- Sep 3, 2017Released on the App Store
- Oct 18, 2019First tested by AppleCensorship
- Nov 13, 2020Last seen available anywhere
- Nov 8, 2022Gone from 111 storefronts
- Sep 17, 2026Most recent test
Testing history
One column per month, every month from the first reading to the last. Height follows how many readings we took that month; red is the share of them that found the app unavailable. An empty month is one nobody tested.
Found availableFound unavailable
Availability by storefront
Every storefront we test, current status first. Data is a measurement, not a promise: each row carries its own date.
| Test now | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AlbaniaAL | Unavailable | Jun 5, 2022 | 2 years ago | ||
| AnguillaAI | Unavailable | Mar 23, 2026 | 6 months ago | ||
| Antigua & BarbudaAG | Unavailable | Jun 30, 2026 | 3 months ago | ||
| ArgentinaAR | Unavailable | May 23, 2024 | 2 years ago | ||
| ArmeniaAM | Unavailable | Apr 1, 2024 | 2 years ago | ||
| BahamasBS | Unavailable | Jan 26, 2023 | 4 years ago | ||
| BahrainBH | Unavailable | Feb 28, 2022 | 8 months ago | ||
| BarbadosBB | Unavailable | Jan 22, 2024 | 3 years ago | ||
| BelarusBY | Unavailable | Jul 25, 2022 | 4 months ago | ||
| BelgiumBE | Unavailable | Aug 31, 2022 | 4 years ago | ||
| BelizeBZ | Unavailable | Apr 16, 2026 | 5 months ago | ||
| BoliviaBO | Unavailable | Apr 27, 2022 | 2 years ago | ||
| BotswanaBW | Unavailable | Apr 6, 2022 | 4 years ago | ||
| BrazilBR | Unavailable | Dec 9, 2022 | 3 years ago | ||
| BruneiBN | Unavailable | Jul 15, 2024 | 2 years ago | ||
| BulgariaBG | Unavailable | Aug 4, 2024 | 2 years ago | ||
| Burkina FasoBF | Unavailable | Apr 10, 2022 | 2 years ago | ||
| CambodiaKH | Unavailable | Dec 7, 2023 | 3 years ago | ||
| CameroonCM | Unavailable | Oct 25, 2022 | 4 years ago | ||
| CanadaCA | Unavailable | Aug 30, 2023 | 3 years ago | ||
| ChadTD | Unavailable | Jun 16, 2022 | 4 years ago | ||
| ChileCL | Unavailable | Aug 10, 2024 | 2 years ago | ||
| China (Mainland)CN | Unavailable | Feb 28, 2022 | 4 months ago | ||
| ColombiaCO | Unavailable | Apr 25, 2022 | 2 years ago | ||
| Costa RicaCR | Unavailable | Feb 28, 2022 | 35 days ago | ||
| Côte d’IvoireCI | Unavailable | Nov 8, 2022 | 10 months ago | ||
| CzechiaCZ | Unavailable | May 28, 2024 | 16 months ago | ||
| DenmarkDK | Unavailable | Apr 24, 2023 | 3 years ago | ||
| DominicaDM | Unavailable | Jul 7, 2022 | 4 years ago | ||
| DR CongoCD | Unavailable | Jul 7, 2022 | 4 years ago | ||
| EcuadorEC | Unavailable | Nov 8, 2022 | 4 years ago | ||
| El SalvadorSV | Unavailable | Jun 14, 2022 | 3 months ago | ||
| EstoniaEE | Unavailable | Feb 28, 2022 | 2 years ago | ||
| EswatiniSZ | Unavailable | Jul 19, 2023 | 3 years ago | ||
| FijiFJ | Unavailable | Jun 19, 2022 | 1 year ago | ||
| GabonGA | Unavailable | Jun 28, 2022 | 4 years ago | ||
| GermanyDE | Unavailable | Sep 12, 2025 | 12 months ago | ||
| GhanaGH | Unavailable | Mar 21, 2022 | 2 years ago | ||
| GrenadaGD | Unavailable | Jun 11, 2023 | 3 years ago | ||
| GuatemalaGT | Unavailable | Oct 14, 2022 | 2 years ago | ||
| Guinea-BissauGW | Unavailable | Jun 14, 2022 | 3 months ago | ||
| GuyanaGY | Unavailable | Dec 10, 2023 | 3 years ago | ||
| HondurasHN | Unavailable | Mar 12, 2025 | 3 months ago | ||
| Hong KongHK | Unavailable | May 31, 2023 | 3 years ago | ||
| HungaryHU | Unavailable | Feb 28, 2022 | 6 months ago | ||
| IcelandIS | Unavailable | Apr 8, 2024 | 2 years ago | ||
| IndiaIN | Unavailable | Feb 28, 2022 | 2 years ago | ||
| IndonesiaID | Unavailable | Jul 7, 2022 | 4 years ago | ||
| IrelandIE | Unavailable | Jun 30, 2026 | 3 months ago | ||
| JamaicaJM | Unavailable | Dec 18, 2023 | 3 years ago | ||
| JordanJO | Unavailable | Sep 17, 2026 | 2 days ago | ||
| KazakhstanKZ | Unavailable | Dec 7, 2024 | 3 months ago | ||
| KenyaKE | Unavailable | Aug 14, 2026 | 35 days ago | ||
| KosovoXK | Unavailable | Oct 20, 2024 | 2 years ago | ||
| KuwaitKW | Unavailable | Feb 28, 2022 | 2 years ago | ||
| KyrgyzstanKG | Unavailable | Feb 28, 2022 | 4 years ago | ||
| LatviaLV | Unavailable | Dec 21, 2022 | 4 years ago | ||
| LiberiaLR | Unavailable | Aug 5, 2022 | 2 years ago | ||
| LuxembourgLU | Unavailable | Apr 19, 2023 | 3 years ago | ||
| MacaoMO | Unavailable | Dec 11, 2022 | 4 years ago | ||
| MadagascarMG | Unavailable | Jun 12, 2023 | 3 years ago | ||
| MalawiMW | Unavailable | Jun 10, 2022 | 15 months ago | ||
| MaliML | Unavailable | Jun 16, 2022 | 8 months ago | ||
| MauritaniaMR | Unavailable | Mar 24, 2022 | 2 years ago | ||
| MexicoMX | Unavailable | Feb 28, 2022 | 2 days ago | ||
| MoroccoMA | Unavailable | Jul 7, 2022 | 4 years ago | ||
| Myanmar (Burma)MM | Unavailable | Apr 26, 2023 | 3 years ago | ||
| NamibiaNA | Unavailable | Oct 17, 2025 | 8 months ago | ||
| NauruNR | Unavailable | Jun 27, 2024 | 2 days ago | ||
| NepalNP | Unavailable | Dec 9, 2022 | 2 years ago | ||
| NicaraguaNI | Unavailable | Feb 15, 2024 | 3 years ago | ||
| NigerNE | Unavailable | Apr 14, 2022 | 2 years ago | ||
| NigeriaNG | Unavailable | Apr 27, 2022 | 2 years ago | ||
| OmanOM | Unavailable | Dec 13, 2022 | 4 years ago | ||
| PakistanPK | Unavailable | Jul 5, 2024 | 2 years ago | ||
| PanamaPA | Unavailable | Apr 25, 2022 | 4 years ago | ||
| Papua New GuineaPG | Unavailable | Aug 31, 2022 | 3 months ago | ||
| ParaguayPY | Unavailable | Dec 24, 2025 | 9 months ago | ||
| PhilippinesPH | Unavailable | Feb 28, 2022 | 11 months ago | ||
| PolandPL | Unavailable | Feb 28, 2022 | 9 months ago | ||
| PortugalPT | Unavailable | Feb 28, 2022 | 2 years ago | ||
| Republic of the CongoCG | Unavailable | Jun 28, 2022 | 15 months ago | ||
| RomaniaRO | Unavailable | Feb 15, 2024 | 3 years ago | ||
| RussiaRU | Unavailable | Mar 21, 2022 | 2 years ago | ||
| RwandaRW | Unavailable | Aug 31, 2022 | 4 years ago | ||
| Saudi ArabiaSA | Unavailable | Jun 19, 2022 | 4 years ago | ||
| Sierra LeoneSL | Unavailable | Jun 10, 2022 | 2 years ago | ||
| SingaporeSG | Unavailable | Nov 7, 2022 | 4 years ago | ||
| SlovakiaSK | Unavailable | Oct 25, 2022 | 4 years ago | ||
| SloveniaSI | Unavailable | Mar 30, 2023 | 3 years ago | ||
| South AfricaZA | Unavailable | Dec 18, 2024 | 2 years ago | ||
| South KoreaKR | Unavailable | Mar 15, 2025 | 2 years ago | ||
| Sri LankaLK | Unavailable | Mar 24, 2022 | 2 years ago | ||
| St. Kitts & NevisKN | Unavailable | Mar 30, 2024 | 2 years ago | ||
| St. Vincent & GrenadinesVC | Unavailable | Oct 15, 2022 | 4 years ago | ||
| SwedenSE | Unavailable | Oct 22, 2022 | 4 years ago | ||
| TajikistanTJ | Unavailable | Apr 7, 2024 | 2 years ago | ||
| ThailandTH | Unavailable | Mar 10, 2023 | 3 years ago | ||
| TongaTO | Unavailable | Jul 25, 2022 | 4 years ago | ||
| Trinidad & TobagoTT | Unavailable | Apr 6, 2022 | 2 years ago | ||
| TürkiyeTR | Unavailable | Jan 21, 2023 | 4 years ago | ||
| TurkmenistanTM | Unavailable | Feb 2, 2023 | 4 years ago | ||
| Turks & Caicos IslandsTC | Unavailable | Jun 5, 2022 | 4 years ago | ||
| UgandaUG | Unavailable | Sep 24, 2023 | 3 years ago | ||
| UkraineUA | Unavailable | Mar 21, 2022 | 2 years ago | ||
| United Arab EmiratesAE | Unavailable | Feb 28, 2022 | 2 days ago | ||
| United KingdomGB | Unavailable | Jun 30, 2024 | 2 years ago | ||
| United StatesUS | Unavailable | Feb 28, 2022 | 2 days ago | ||
| UruguayUY | Unavailable | Oct 24, 2024 | 2 years ago | ||
| UzbekistanUZ | Unavailable | Nov 6, 2025 | 10 months ago | ||
| VenezuelaVE | Unavailable | Oct 29, 2024 | 2 years ago | ||
| AfghanistanAF | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| AlgeriaDZ | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| AngolaAO | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| AustraliaAU | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| AustriaAT | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| AzerbaijanAZ | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| BeninBJ | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| BermudaBM | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| BhutanBT | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| Bosnia & HerzegovinaBA | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| British Virgin IslandsVG | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| Cape VerdeCV | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| Cayman IslandsKY | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| CroatiaHR | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| CyprusCY | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| Dominican RepublicDO | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| EgyptEG | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| FinlandFI | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| FranceFR | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| GambiaGM | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| GeorgiaGE | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| GreeceGR | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| IraqIQ | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| IsraelIL | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| ItalyIT | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| JapanJP | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| LaosLA | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| LebanonLB | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| LibyaLY | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| LithuaniaLT | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| MalaysiaMY | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| MaldivesMV | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| MaltaMT | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| MauritiusMU | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| MicronesiaFM | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| MoldovaMD | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| MongoliaMN | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| MontenegroME | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| MontserratMS | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| MozambiqueMZ | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| NetherlandsNL | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| New ZealandNZ | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| North MacedoniaMK | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| NorwayNO | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| PalauPW | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| PeruPE | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| QatarQA | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| São Tomé & PríncipeST | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| SenegalSN | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| SerbiaRS | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| SeychellesSC | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| Solomon IslandsSB | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| SpainES | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| St. LuciaLC | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| SurinameSR | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| SwitzerlandCH | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| TaiwanTW | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| TanzaniaTZ | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| TunisiaTN | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| VanuatuVU | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| VietnamVN | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| YemenYE | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| ZambiaZM | Not tested | — | — | 0 | |
| ZimbabweZW | Not tested | — | — | 0 |
Testing asks Apple whether it will sell this app in that storefront, right now, by the same method the crawler has used since 2019. Your browser asks Apple directly, so the answer describes what Apple serves your connection — and if your browser cannot reach Apple at all, we ask on your behalf and say so. The result is a link: open it to see Apple's own answer and check ours. Readings are added to the record above; roughly a quarter of the readings taken each day come from people testing.
How we test
Availability is checked against Apple's own catalog servers for every storefront, the same way the App Store app asks. "Unavailable" means Apple's servers say the app cannot be offered in that country — it does not say who asked for the removal. Removals initiated by the developer and removals demanded by governments look the same from outside; the history and context on this page are how we tell them apart.