231–240 of 585 posts
I would like a breakdown of Reddit's actual costs vs their proposed fees. Why isn't Reddit profitable? Is there a way to make Reddit profitable without charging for API access?
They have 2,000 employees.
I would have estimated Reddit to be 100 people max, and even that seems high.
Does anything like this exist? A feed of unfiltered, unmoderated content + conversations, fed to a multitude of websites, each with its own moderation filters and content standards. All submissions go to the to the shared feed, but hit moderation and content filters on the website before being displayed. So you can have a reddit-like website with a lot of good content, but if it ever goes south people can quickly flo…
Usenet was good as well.
They buried the lede. The article suggests the shutdown was because of free API to paid API. Anyone uninformed who just click off at that point. Even when they ask about costs, it was just saying it’s “ But the issue is two fold. (1) all the devs support a paid API, but the rate is absurd according to basic math. It would charge devs over 20x what a user actually cost/were worth. Devs were willing to take on a higher…
Also the normal way to introduce pricing to free services is to make it initially super-cheap so the majority will find it reasonable. Then overtime increase prices as you get a better sense of value and market dynamics. Starting high, creating a lot of negative reactions and almost killing any real market for profitable apps on your platform seems to be the opposite of smart. It’s now some governments go with taxati…
It is not how a pre-IPO company behaves
Incentives.
It's so weird that this revenue generating app is the poster child for Reddit admins abusing third parties or whatever. They literally made money for years, almost completely unbothered by Reddit inc, with their own ads and subscription model. I just don't get it, this is not some open source app getting mauled by a corporate behemoth. Apollo probably made more profit from Reddit than Reddit itself. And yes I know, R…
It's so weird that this revenue generating app is the poster child for Reddit admins abusing third parties or whatever. They literally made money for years, almost completely unbothered by Reddit inc, with their own ads and subscription model. I just don't get it, this is not some open source app getting mauled by a corporate behemoth. Apollo probably made more profit from Reddit than Reddit itself. And yes I know, R…
From what I can tell, it’s not the users that revolted. It’s their unpaid moderator workforce striking in solidarity with the workers that used Apollo to improve their experience. I’m very curious to see what the resolution will be from Reddit’s side, but heading toward IPO while you’ve got a huge chunk of unpaid labor that makes your site work striking can’t be good for the strike price. The workers have the company…
I'm seeing a lot of similarities between Reddit benefiting greatly from their unpaid moderators and Apollo benefiting from them the same. As well as not even having to pay Reddit at all. Did Apollo ever even have to pay for anything whatsoever? Not really that surprising that business went away when the free lunch was over
To call it a "free lunch" is pretty disrespectful IMHO, Christian worked hard on Apollo and it blows away the official app. Reddit benefits from 3rd party apps. Period. They don't want to admit that and they might not benefit as much as from 1st party but those users interact, create content, moderate subs, and more. Reddit went from "no charge, use the API" to "pay us a LOT of money and you have <30 days" with zero wiggle room.
They buried the lede. The article suggests the shutdown was because of free API to paid API. Anyone uninformed who just click off at that point. Even when they ask about costs, it was just saying it’s “ But the issue is two fold. (1) all the devs support a paid API, but the rate is absurd according to basic math. It would charge devs over 20x what a user actually cost/were worth. Devs were willing to take on a higher…
> Not really mentioned was all this was changed out the blue with less than 30 days to comply. The interview touches on it but it’s insanity that a tech company think it’s reasonable for indie devs to operate under that constraint. It's unreasonable for a company of any size. The entire storyline shows Reddit sabotaging the process. Which seems idiotic, because they're throwing away a vibrant ecosystem that is #1 in…
This reeks of Reddit just not even wanting to do this at all. Call up the big devs so they can say "Oh well, we tried!" and the small devs that could afford the smaller-end costs just get ignored.
I've gotta say, Christian comes across as really naive in this piece. > Well, it’s weird because prior to this, I almost always understood that Reddit as a company understood that they’re very community-focused, and they kind of didn’t do the bullshit corporate speak. And it was weird to kind of see this week, where they engaged in a lot more of that than I have historically ever seen them do. And it just went over……
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Something I've been wondering—why couldn't the API just send a batch of ads to be served with the content? Since the apps need an authorized API key, if they don't cooperate in showing the ads then Reddit could simply threaten revocation. Then users who want "premium" could pay for whatever feature Reddit-side to allow an ad-free experience, or they could even partner with the third party apps to offer it for a cut o…
Because ads still need all the privacy-invading telemetry from the client device, which these apps wouldn't want to participate in.
Of course, this isn't about ads in and of themselves. It's about Reddit (and, to some degree, tech in general) having lost investor interest and Reddit being this close to bankruptcy, desperately hoping that these 3P clients will provide a stable cash infusion to keep the lights on. Ads alone aren't enough; at least not now with the financial hole they have dug for themselves.
Ultimately, Reddit is panicking and doesn't know where to get the money they need real soon. Their historic practice of another investment round isn't going to work this time. Likewise, slowly transitioning to a paid API, giving developers time adapt like Christian proposed, isn't going to work either as, at that pace, there won't be a Reddit by the time the transition is complete.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It seems you don’t really see the power dynamics here. Reddit holds all the power: they have the API, they can shut anyone out of it, they can ask for it whatever they want, they could even re-open all closed subreddits and install new mods. All the community and Apollo has is the power to say “Reddit, if you don’t play nice, we’ll walk away”. To call that a blackmail requires some mental gymnastics.
Nope, Reddit currently has a bunch of their subreddits private. And if the Apollo dev gets paid, then he can come up with something to make the blackout go away. That's the leverage he has to ask for money. It's what he implied in the call he had recorded, and he keeps indicating he's open to an offer. If reddit goes back to normal before he has an offer then that's when he has no leverage anymore.
The Reddit users are literally using the only miniature tool to influence Reddit that is at their disposal: look elsewhere.