Full Interview: Reddit CEO Steve Huffman Isn’t Backing Down
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Re: Full Interview: Reddit CEO Steve Huffman Isn’t Backing Down
#2> We don’t have to meet our deadline. We told folks hey, we need to come up with a plan, or we’re going to start billing you on July 1st.
I don't understand why he keeps doing these interviews, he's just terrible at responding to completely predictable, reasonable questions.
Re: Full Interview: Reddit CEO Steve Huffman Isn’t Backing Down
#3> We don’t have to meet our deadline. We told folks hey, we need to come up with a plan, or we’re going to start billing you on July 1st. I don't understand why he keeps doing these interviews, he's just terrible at responding to completely predictable, reasonable questions.
I can't believe he's the CEO of a company as big as Reddit. After being pressed for why the 3P apps have 1 month to figure out a plan, he is visibly angry and keeps saying "we've been supporting them for 10 years!" which only makes the company look incompetent for not warning sooner if July 1st is some hard deadline. Then saying "those 3p devs [Apollo] don't want to work with us" with no hint of irony. Dude, obviously Apollo can't suddenly start getting billed for $1m/month with no time to change the codebase to see what they can optimize.
Re: Full Interview: Reddit CEO Steve Huffman Isn’t Backing Down
#4I understand their desire to become profitable as a business, but the way Reddit has gone about this does not fill me with confidence regarding any hypothetical IPO they may be considering.
An executive openly attacking community members and developers, some of whom originally wrote the app that Reddit the bought to brand as their official one, as ‘not the intended users’ of the API is just misleading. They clearly saw value in having an app and bought one, one which wouldn’t have existed without API access, and which Reddit had previously heralded as a first class feature. Now they claim apps are a misuse of their api and they intended it for bots and tools only as part of their reasoning, and it just makes their whole argument seem poorly thought out.
At the end of the day, they own their platform, and can do what they like, but this attitude will cost them some of their most active contributors who decide it’s not worth putting up with their now bloated official experiences.
Also the repeated claims that third party apps strip ads is just plain wrong. Reddit has never included ads in the API nor provided a way to show ads on reddits behalf.
Re: Full Interview: Reddit CEO Steve Huffman Isn’t Backing Down
#5Journalist:
> I want to stop you for a second there. So you’re saying that Apollo, RIF, Sync, they don’t add value to Reddit?
Spez: > Not as much as they take. No way.
Let’s be clear, if 1 developer can make millions through Apollo and do a way better app than the Reddit team, what does that say about Reddit as a whole and their development?
It fucking sucks!
Re: Full Interview: Reddit CEO Steve Huffman Isn’t Backing Down
#6> Interviewer: I don’t know if I agree with the characterization that Apollo is a fully direct competitor of Reddit.
> Huffman: Okay, hold on, timeout. You go to the App Store, you type in Reddit, you get two options, right? There’s Apollo. You go to one, it’s my business, and you look at our ads, use our products. That’s 95 percent of our iOS users. The rest go to Apollo, which uses our logo, or something like it, takes our data — for free — and resells it to users making a 100 percent margin. And instead of using our app, they use that app. Is that not competitive?
The Reddit strike should go on forever just for that answer alone.
Re: Full Interview: Reddit CEO Steve Huffman Isn’t Backing Down
#7> Interviewer: I don’t know if I agree with the characterization that Apollo is a fully direct competitor of Reddit. > Huffman: Okay, hold on, timeout. You go to the App Store, you type in Reddit, you get two options, right? There’s Apollo. You go to one, it’s my business, and you look at our ads, use our products. That’s 95 percent of our iOS users. The rest go to Apollo, which uses our logo, or something like it, t…
He has a point, no? Sure, there's a middle ground where API access is priced so both Reddit and Apollo make money. But Apollo can offer a better experience because they don't have to sell ads, and if they get a large enough market share they can just start their own Reddit.. the codebase is not an effective moat.
Re: Full Interview: Reddit CEO Steve Huffman Isn’t Backing Down
#8Journalist: > I want to stop you for a second there. So you’re saying that Apollo, RIF, Sync, they don’t add value to Reddit? Spez: > Not as much as they take. No way. Let’s be clear, if 1 developer can make millions through Apollo and do a way better app than the Reddit team, what does that say about Reddit as a whole and their development? It fucking sucks!
I imagine Reddit's response would be, we have to show annoying ads etc to make back the money we spend on infrastructure. Apollo simply uses our work for free, and so can offer an artificially better deal.
Re: Full Interview: Reddit CEO Steve Huffman Isn’t Backing Down
#9> We don’t have to meet our deadline. We told folks hey, we need to come up with a plan, or we’re going to start billing you on July 1st. I don't understand why he keeps doing these interviews, he's just terrible at responding to completely predictable, reasonable questions.
I can't believe he's the CEO of a company as big as Reddit. After being pressed for why the 3P apps have 1 month to figure out a plan, he is visibly angry and keeps saying "we've been supporting them for 10 years!" which only makes the company look incompetent for not warning sooner if July 1st is some hard deadline. Then saying "those 3p devs [Apollo] don't want to work with us" with no hint of irony. Dude, obviousl…
Seems like their ipo could flop
Re: Full Interview: Reddit CEO Steve Huffman Isn’t Backing Down
#10> Interviewer: I don’t know if I agree with the characterization that Apollo is a fully direct competitor of Reddit. > Huffman: Okay, hold on, timeout. You go to the App Store, you type in Reddit, you get two options, right? There’s Apollo. You go to one, it’s my business, and you look at our ads, use our products. That’s 95 percent of our iOS users. The rest go to Apollo, which uses our logo, or something like it, t…
He has a point, no? Sure, there's a middle ground where API access is priced so both Reddit and Apollo make money. But Apollo can offer a better experience because they don't have to sell ads, and if they get a large enough market share they can just start their own Reddit.. the codebase is not an effective moat.
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