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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

#21

Post by exclusiv »

noahtallen wrote: post #15
Nition wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

But it would be very simple for Reddit to require ads to be served in Apollo. They could say that in order to view a feed of posts at scale, you'll have to include ads that are injected into the feed. They could revoke the API token for any clients which don't do that. In fact, there are plenty of ways for Reddit to get their money back. Simply put, the Reddit CEO definitely wants to kill 3rd party apps. He just know…

Certainly seems that way. They had been giving access. Then made pricing outrageous and 30 days to comply. A way to kill them off without straight up removing their access or shutting down the API to third parties in full.

Re: Full Interview: Reddit CEO Steve Huffman Isn’t Backing Down

#22

Post by bleepblop »

kentm wrote: post #17
bleepblop wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The people in WallStreetBets have been waiting for the chance to short reddit on day one. They have their fingers on the trigger.

Well I guess that means it’s going to the moon then.

The wildest part is people are willing to lose a lot of money to watch it's stock plummet.

Re: Full Interview: Reddit CEO Steve Huffman Isn’t Backing Down

#23

Post by onionisafruit »

sdwr wrote: post #7
minimaxir wrote: post #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, 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.

I pay for reddit gold. I can use reddit’s mobile app without ads. It’s still shit compared to Apollo.

Re: Full Interview: Reddit CEO Steve Huffman Isn’t Backing Down

#24

Post by haswell »

Nition wrote: post #8
asciii wrote: post #5

Journalist: > 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.

The thing they seem to completely miss is that the value these apps brought comes from the dedicated/addicted users who generate the only thing of value: content. And needing a 3rd party app to make regular use viable from a mobile device has always been a thing.

It’s totally fair for them to say they need to address the ad issue. But to claim these apps bring no value is pretty ridiculous on his part.

Re: Full Interview: Reddit CEO Steve Huffman Isn’t Backing Down

#25

Post by onionisafruit »

Nition wrote: post #19
asciii wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> our work A lot to unpack here.

Ah, well, I'm sure a real response from Reddit would be much more careful than I was to point to the costs of their infrastructure and away from all the work users do to generate content for free.

I think they are implying that accidentally let slip that you work at reddit. The way I read your comment is you were speculating what somebody from reddit would say.

Re: Full Interview: Reddit CEO Steve Huffman Isn’t Backing Down

#26

Post by icodestuff »

I think Reddit gave away the game plan when they decided to remove API access to NSFW subreddits. Between that and making the mobile app required to view them (blocking mobile web), they’ve basically created a porn app, not just a glorified web browser, and managed to get it into the App Store. One with no private browsing mode, no ad blockers, and resetting all of your advertising identifiers is high friction (you have to create a new account). This is an adult content advertiser’s dream come true. Of course reddit wants complete control over it.

That’s why the blackout protests are doomed. Unless it causes enough people to stop using reddit altogether, they will have no effect.

Re: Full Interview: Reddit CEO Steve Huffman Isn’t Backing Down

#27

Post by badwolf »

haswell wrote: post #24
Nition wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The thing they seem to completely miss is that the value these apps brought comes from the dedicated/addicted users who generate the only thing of value: content. And needing a 3rd party app to make regular use viable from a mobile device has always been a thing. It’s totally fair for them to say they need to address the ad issue. But to claim these apps bring no value is pretty ridiculous on his part.

They could also just require a user to have a Reddit Gold membership - which already doesn't show ads anywhere.

Re: Full Interview: Reddit CEO Steve Huffman Isn’t Backing Down

#28

Post by mattboardman »

>If comments were on for those posts... there’s a reason why they’re not allowing comments. That is a very un-Reddit thing to do.

If it's unreddit why is it a feature of reddit? (A feature, that in my opinion, is heavily abused by mods and admins).

Re: Full Interview: Reddit CEO Steve Huffman Isn’t Backing Down

#29

Post by june1998 »

noahtallen wrote: post #15
Nition wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

But it would be very simple for Reddit to require ads to be served in Apollo. They could say that in order to view a feed of posts at scale, you'll have to include ads that are injected into the feed. They could revoke the API token for any clients which don't do that. In fact, there are plenty of ways for Reddit to get their money back. Simply put, the Reddit CEO definitely wants to kill 3rd party apps. He just know…

Curious how would that be implemented. How do you ensure that third party app actually shows the ads?

Re: Full Interview: Reddit CEO Steve Huffman Isn’t Backing Down

#30

Post by june1998 »

fineIllregister wrote: post #11
sdwr wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> But Apollo can offer a better experience because they don't have to sell ads... Reddit could require serving their ads as a requirement for API access. Right now there is no way for Apollo to serve reddit ads even if they wanted to.

How would that be enforced?
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