★ 10/12

Shadowrocket

A paid ($2.99) proxy app for iPhone: the user sets up their own Shadowsocks/V2Ray/VLESS/Trojan server, and Shadowrocket uses that config to give fast, stable access to blocked…

geo-arbitrage

Geo China (banned from the App Store since 2017, demand did not go away: purchases via US/HK Apple IDs), Iran, Russia (still live in the RU App Store in 2026, 249₽), US (#1-2 Top Paid iPhone 2023-2026), Hong Kong, Taiwan, + Western Europe (Germany/Spain/France/Italy: #1 Utilities)

Founders Li Guangming (personal site liguangming.com, GitHub github.com/cute, Twitter/X @liguangming)

Domains —

Score demand 3 · ease 2 · ICP 2 · monetization 2 · freshness 1

Growth tactics (teaser)

a one-time $2.99 purchase against competitors' subscriptions ($5.99–49.99): a hard price anchor from below
the government ban in China (July 2017) did not kill demand but cemented its cult status: users buy it through US/HK Apple IDs despite the legal risk
10 years of continuous updates by one person with no website and no ads: trust instead of marketing
[hypothesis] Apple review categorizing it as a developer utility rather than a VPN may have let it avoid the wave of VPN app removals from the RU App Store in 2026

🔒 Full dossier

Launch timeline, metrics, the growth mechanics taken apart and checkable sources — sent to your email after payment, as a .md attachment. The dossier itself is written in Russian; this page and the catalog are the English part.

Buy dossier · $5