Had a call with Reddit to discuss pricing • Hacker News Board

Re: Had a call with Reddit to discuss pricing

#51

Post by Aaronstotle » Wed, May 31, 2023, 6:18 PM UTC

debacle wrote: post #41

I don't disagree with either party here. $12k for 50 million requests is not egregious, but $2.50 per user for something that is probably cheap/free to users is a non starter. Reddit has failed to adequately monetize their userbase, they've run into the same "politics and porn" issue that every social media platform has, and they've raised way, way too much money. The worst part? I couldn't tell you the last legitima…

Personally, Facebook/Instagram show me really good ads, while Reddit-ads are always a complete miss.

Re: Had a call with Reddit to discuss pricing

#52

Post by kitsunesoba » Wed, May 31, 2023, 6:18 PM UTC

rootusrootus wrote: post #32

sosodev wrote: post #25

Keep in mind that Reddit has said they're going to stop serving NSFW content via API too. So if you enjoy that stuff you won't get it in Apollo even if you pay them.

Reddit seems to want NSFW content gone altogether. At this point you can only see it anonymously if you go to old.reddit.com, if you go to the regular UI it requires you to authenticate before you can see any kind of questionable content.

> Reddit seems to want NSFW content gone altogether.

Between this and trying to crowd out third party clients, one has to wonder if they're trying to position themselves to become the next Digg.

Re: Had a call with Reddit to discuss pricing

#53

Post by denimnerd42 » Wed, May 31, 2023, 6:18 PM UTC

jdminhbg wrote: post #31

> Even if I only kept subscription users, the average Apollo user uses 344 requests per day, which would cost $2.50 per month, which is over double what the subscription currently costs, so I'd be in the red every month. I just don't understand why developers underprice their apps so much. You're talking about an app that people are constantly raving about, and that people use for multiple hours per day. Charge $5/mo…

well the problem with mobile apps is the alternatives are free. It's a bad business and why I didn't take my passion for mobile apps as a career.

Re: Had a call with Reddit to discuss pricing

#54

Post by sosodev » Wed, May 31, 2023, 6:18 PM UTC

jdminhbg wrote: post #31

> Even if I only kept subscription users, the average Apollo user uses 344 requests per day, which would cost $2.50 per month, which is over double what the subscription currently costs, so I'd be in the red every month. I just don't understand why developers underprice their apps so much. You're talking about an app that people are constantly raving about, and that people use for multiple hours per day. Charge $5/mo…

I suspect that a fraction of users would convert and many others would trash the developer/app for the switch to subscription. Users of free apps like this have a seriously warped view of software costs.

It seems like Reddit is pushing these changes because that's exactly what they want to happen. They want all users to be using the free first-party Reddit app.

Re: Had a call with Reddit to discuss pricing

#55

Post by tristanb » Wed, May 31, 2023, 6:18 PM UTC

Reddits mobile app, and website are one of the worst UX experiences I've encountered on a UGC site. Terribly bad. I they should be working with people who can make products people want to use to consume their content, not killing them off with absurd pricing.

Re: Had a call with Reddit to discuss pricing

#56

Post by kdkdowp » Wed, May 31, 2023, 6:18 PM UTC

jdminhbg wrote: post #31

> Even if I only kept subscription users, the average Apollo user uses 344 requests per day, which would cost $2.50 per month, which is over double what the subscription currently costs, so I'd be in the red every month. I just don't understand why developers underprice their apps so much. You're talking about an app that people are constantly raving about, and that people use for multiple hours per day. Charge $5/mo…

LMAO can you imagine paying monthly to use Reddit? That'd be like paying monthly to browse this site or 4chan. I think I'd reevaluate my life if I considered paying monthly to access that cesspool.

Reddit is already nearly entirely astroturfed advertisements, and you pay for the site by reading the shill posts that fill its pages. The fact that anyone pays Apollo or Reddit for a subscription is already just sad. Like paying for cable.

Re: Had a call with Reddit to discuss pricing

#57

Post by granshaw » Wed, May 31, 2023, 6:18 PM UTC

RhodesianHunter wrote: post #34

Lx1oG-AWb6h_ZG0 wrote: post #13

Their pricing is just absurd. Reddit's official app and webpage is garbage, and instead of working with amazing developers like Christian to add whatever functionality they need to increase their revenue, they're doubling down on bad decisions and alienating their users. Pure hubris... they've forgotten their own history and why the Digg exodus happened. Seriously, _what_ are they gaining by eliminating access to thi…

Reddit has seemed rudderless for a long time. Their ads platform is damned near useless compared to their competitors. It's a wonder they have any revenue at all. Their moderation is wildly broken, frequently leading to blanket account bans of anyone participating in a thread close to content deemed inappropriate.

Far from it. They have great recent user growth and everybody is appending “Reddit” to the end of their google searches in the quest for non-gamed search results

Re: Had a call with Reddit to discuss pricing

#58

Post by superfrank » Wed, May 31, 2023, 6:18 PM UTC

rootusrootus wrote: post #32

sosodev wrote: post #25

Keep in mind that Reddit has said they're going to stop serving NSFW content via API too. So if you enjoy that stuff you won't get it in Apollo even if you pay them.

Reddit seems to want NSFW content gone altogether. At this point you can only see it anonymously if you go to old.reddit.com, if you go to the regular UI it requires you to authenticate before you can see any kind of questionable content.

I agree, but I find it funny that it seems to be backfiring. I've noticed a pretty large increase in the number of posts that are people getting maimed or killed on subs that show up on the front page. Subs like publicfeakout that used to be stuff like people yelling at each other in mall now regularly have gore voted to the top.

Re: Had a call with Reddit to discuss pricing

#59

Post by therealmarv » Wed, May 31, 2023, 6:18 PM UTC

mnd999 wrote: post #37

Lx1oG-AWb6h_ZG0 wrote: post #13

Their pricing is just absurd. Reddit's official app and webpage is garbage, and instead of working with amazing developers like Christian to add whatever functionality they need to increase their revenue, they're doubling down on bad decisions and alienating their users. Pure hubris... they've forgotten their own history and why the Digg exodus happened. Seriously, _what_ are they gaining by eliminating access to thi…

They don't want people training LLMs with their data without paying for it. Blame the AI bros for stealing all their data.

But I wonder if they really fulfil this goal. How do they solve the unsolved problem of allowing scraping / SEO (Google, Bing etc.) but not teaching their LLMs?

It's obvious or an open secret that Alphabet/Google and Microsoft will use their web copy for teaching their AI.

Re: Had a call with Reddit to discuss pricing

#60

Post by Alupis » Wed, May 31, 2023, 6:19 PM UTC

jdminhbg wrote: post #31

> Even if I only kept subscription users, the average Apollo user uses 344 requests per day, which would cost $2.50 per month, which is over double what the subscription currently costs, so I'd be in the red every month. I just don't understand why developers underprice their apps so much. You're talking about an app that people are constantly raving about, and that people use for multiple hours per day. Charge $5/mo…

I agree. The OP makes the case that it will cost him on average $2.50 per month per user - so... charge $3 per month - no blog post needed.

Same with Twitter. So many businesses were built upon basically free API access and are now shocked the company responsible for their app's customer appeal wants some of that action.

It's not Reddit's responsibility to float OP's business and make it profitable. OP's billions of monthly requests have a real cost for Reddit - and now that Reddit's API is so coveted, they can charge whatever they want for it's access.

No Twitter - no Twitter App.

No Reddit - no Reddit App.

It's really simple...