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Had a call with Reddit to discuss pricing

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Re: Had a call with Reddit to discuss pricing

#351

Post by adrianmonk »

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.

If that's the real issue, then offer two licenses. One that allows you to use the data to train an AI. Another that doesn't and says that if you do they will permaban your API access and sue your pants off.

Third-party client apps can keep doing what they do, knowing that attempting to use the data to train an AI would destroy their business forever. Companies that want to train an AI can use the other license and pay big stacks of money.

Re: Had a call with Reddit to discuss pricing

#352

Post by hosh »

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 are probably pricing this for people who want to use Reddit data to train their AI.

Re: Had a call with Reddit to discuss pricing

#353

Post by Zetice »

dopamean wrote: post #335
jdwithit wrote: post #331

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just checked "For You" for the first time and the top story was about one celebrity commenting on another's ass. And then a bunch of clickbait headlines designed to make people share them on social media and get mad. Think I'll pass.

If you've never used it before might you need to for it to show you more relevant things?

Yup, I've found the worst offenders are typically a small subset of sites, and you can ban sites from your For You, which cleans it up pretty quickly.

I've got articles about the debt limit, AI, immigration, the new Titleist irons, etc.

Re: Had a call with Reddit to discuss pricing

#354

Post by SlimyHog »

jdwithit wrote: post #331
Zetice wrote: post #162

I blocked the reddit.com domain from all of my devices a few weeks ago, because until recently I didn't feel like I could keep my finger on the pulse of "The Internet" without Reddit. That's no longer the case. Google's "For You" gets me my niche subject-specific content, Google News/Memeorandum (and its sibling sites)/Apple News gives me the mainstream media perspectives, HN (and maybe Bluesky occasionally) my urge…

I just checked "For You" for the first time and the top story was about one celebrity commenting on another's ass. And then a bunch of clickbait headlines designed to make people share them on social media and get mad. Think I'll pass.

I can't even find this feature. I googled "for you" and got LMGTFY and related sites. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Re: Had a call with Reddit to discuss pricing

#355

Post by scarface_74 »

BudaDude wrote: post #336
scarface_74 wrote: post #330

I don’t see the issue. Apollo should charge a subscription fee that equals (cost of “reasonable API access + desired profit)/.70 and cap the number of request per user so it remains profitable. Users should understand and I would gladly pay for Apollo per month.

This only works in countries where $5-10 is not much. Also this does not account for power users who can easily rack up enough API calls to put Christian in the red.

> Also this does not account for power users who can easily rack up enough API calls to put Christian in the red.

“… and cap the number of request per user so it remains profitable.”

Re: Had a call with Reddit to discuss pricing

#356

Post by jjulius »

activiation wrote: post #298
racl101 wrote: post #174

Yeah, I'm out. I'm not using Reddit on its own app nor the browser. The app is huge and clunky. The browser is turtle slow. Neither gives me the granularity that Apollo gives me. The swipe controls are slick and so are the filters. If I can't consume it with Apollo then it ain't worth it to me. And I already paid for the app. I refuse to pay more for something that is not a necessity. Apollo would have to become a su…

Old.reddit.com isn't too bad

The question is how long it'll be for "isn't" to become "wasn't".

Re: Had a call with Reddit to discuss pricing

#357

Post by s1k3s »

activiation wrote: post #298
racl101 wrote: post #174

Yeah, I'm out. I'm not using Reddit on its own app nor the browser. The app is huge and clunky. The browser is turtle slow. Neither gives me the granularity that Apollo gives me. The swipe controls are slick and so are the filters. If I can't consume it with Apollo then it ain't worth it to me. And I already paid for the app. I refuse to pay more for something that is not a necessity. Apollo would have to become a su…

Old.reddit.com isn't too bad

old.* is the next thing that will be removed.

Re: Had a call with Reddit to discuss pricing

#358

Post by lxchase »

consumer451 wrote: post #249

Can someone give me a couple reasons why it does not make sense to buy Apollo out, and make it the default iOS app? It is currently maintained by one excellent developer, is featured by the Apple App Store for design... what's the downside?

The downside is what makes Apollo great, is the time to content for the consumer. It is in Reddit's best interest in their current business model to have the user spend as much time on a page as possible, in a format that has advertising. Apollo does not have advertising. The official Reddit app does.

Re: Had a call with Reddit to discuss pricing

#359

Post by altairprime »

I'm looking forward to this outcome. Reddit and Apollo both need to get paid, on a recurring basis, for their recurring services that require recurring maintenance and updates.

Reddit gets paid either through ad revenue displayed to non-paying visitors to the website, or through API calls for access to their dataset. Apps that enable user access via the API will need to pass along this charge to their users.

Apollo must become a paid-subscriptions-only app, as Reddit now charges for usage. This is fine. Apollo needs to constantly be updated to keep up with Reddit API changes over time anyways, so neither 'free' nor 'one-time purchase' are acceptable ways to provide a continuous living wage for keeping up with reddit API (and mobile OS) updates.

There's a third (paid) option, which is that Apollo sells the app to Brave or Firefox, where it's integrated into a paid "Reader Mode" subscription — because a team of developers will need recurring revenue for living wages in order to maintain the website rendering overlay and overcome Reddit's attempts to block or break it, and will need a team of lawyers to defend against the eventual lawsuit Reddit will bring against them (even if they'll lose due to the LinkedIn precedent from a few months ago — but, I am not their lawyer, this is not legal advice).

There are no good free outcomes that are not advertising-supported, and the API is incompatible with advertising, which is why so many people use it. I'm glad to see that Reddit has realized this, and I'm glad they are still offering the free ad-supported website rather than a paywall. I hope that Apollo is willing to charge me for their app, and isn't demoralized by their users complaining about this. We'll see.

Re: Had a call with Reddit to discuss pricing

#360

Post by m-p-3 »

api_or_ipa wrote: post #346

The reality is that Apollo doesn't serve intrusive ads, and thus, every user using Apollo instead of their own first party apps is lost revenue. Unfortunately, reddit is in that late stage monetization step where they need to prove they are capable of big revenue to justify a high IPO share price. One can only hope there'll be a watershed moment like the one that killed Digg. So far, reddit has been very careful rais…

in my opinion, a good middle ground would be to make third-party apps only usable if you're subscribed to Reddit Premium.

That way you don't give the data freely, you could make each API keys provided to the user with limits that won't impact normal navigation but would cripple automated data capture, and you'd solve the issue where third-party apps aren't fed ads by sustaining the platform through subscription.

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