A full and diverse catalog of films available for free on iPhone?
The offer seemed too good to be true, but that is what Kimi was proposing, completely illegally.
The mobile streaming application was therefore removed this Wednesday from the App Store by Apple.
And for good reason, Kimi has experienced a meteoric rise, to the point of being part of the list of best free entertainment applications on the App Store at the start of the week, surpassing the most well-known streaming platforms, such as Netflix or Amazon Prime Video.
According to data aggregator Appfigures, Kimi appeared on Apple's application bank in September 2023, and recorded 25,000 downloads in January 2024 alone.
In the United States, the pirated movie app became the 46th most downloaded free app on the App Store.
A success which can be explained by the increase in prices of legal streaming services.
The Apple firm only reacted after the publication of an article in the American media The Verge.
A sham application
How did the app slip through the cracks for several months?
In the App Store, Kimi was presented as a simple eyesight test application with a sort of “7 differences game” between two almost similar photos.
But the illusion was short-lived.
Upon opening the icon, the user was immediately taken to a home page similar to that of Netflix and other platforms, displaying movie thumbnails.
The interface also offered filtering options for content search as well as a tab offering a ranking of the most viewed content.
In the same vein, it was possible to download films to watch them later on your smartphone.
However, it should be noted that the video quality was quite variable, with some content itself being filmed from a cinema.
Also read: End of Popcorn Time: Have Netflix and other VOD platforms got the better of piracy?
During its short life, Kimi had several similarities with Popcorn Time - the application also offered a number of pirated films - which closed its doors for good in 2022.