Reddit app 'Apollo' is shutting down over Reddit's expensive API prices
Apollo, one of the most popular Reddit apps, is shutting down due to modifications made to Reddit's API that will impose incredibly high costs on developers who create Reddit clients.
Apollo is shutting down
Reddit had announced its intention to implement a fee for accessing its API earlier in 2023. The increased costs, which will go into effect on June 19, affect third-party apps built to help people access the Reddit platform.
Developed by Christian Selig, Apollo has emerged as arguably the most widely used app for accessing Reddit. But Selig announced on Thursday that he has no choice to shut down Apollo on June 30 because of the increased expenses associated with API access.
The issue is that Reddit has decided to charge $0.02 per user for accessing its service. As a result, Apollo would face an estimated annual cost of $20 million even before generating any profit from developing the app.
Selig, an independent developer, wrote that the cost is beyond his financial means and claims that Reddit assured him the new pricing would be fair.
"Apollo's price would be approximately $2.50 per month per user, with Reddit's indicated cost being approximately $0.12 per their own numbers," he said. "A 20x increase does not seem "based in reality" to me."
He further wrote that increasing the Apollo subscription cost isn't a viable option given Reddit's 30-day deadline. Approximately 50,000 people have a yearly subscription to Apollo, which means their price is already locked in.
"So you see, even if I increase the price for new subscribers, I still have those many users to contend with," Selig writes. "If I wait until their subscription expires, slowly month after month there will be less of them."
If he removes the Reddit API from Apollo, the app will lose the ability to retrieve Reddit content. As a result, many users will likely ask for a refund on their annual app subscriptions.
Selig anticipates that he could be responsible for a substantial sum of $250,000 if that happens. As a result, it's more affordable for him to shut down.
Read on AppleInsider
Apollo is shutting down
Reddit had announced its intention to implement a fee for accessing its API earlier in 2023. The increased costs, which will go into effect on June 19, affect third-party apps built to help people access the Reddit platform.
Developed by Christian Selig, Apollo has emerged as arguably the most widely used app for accessing Reddit. But Selig announced on Thursday that he has no choice to shut down Apollo on June 30 because of the increased expenses associated with API access.
The issue is that Reddit has decided to charge $0.02 per user for accessing its service. As a result, Apollo would face an estimated annual cost of $20 million even before generating any profit from developing the app.
Selig, an independent developer, wrote that the cost is beyond his financial means and claims that Reddit assured him the new pricing would be fair.
"Apollo's price would be approximately $2.50 per month per user, with Reddit's indicated cost being approximately $0.12 per their own numbers," he said. "A 20x increase does not seem "based in reality" to me."
He further wrote that increasing the Apollo subscription cost isn't a viable option given Reddit's 30-day deadline. Approximately 50,000 people have a yearly subscription to Apollo, which means their price is already locked in.
"So you see, even if I increase the price for new subscribers, I still have those many users to contend with," Selig writes. "If I wait until their subscription expires, slowly month after month there will be less of them."
If he removes the Reddit API from Apollo, the app will lose the ability to retrieve Reddit content. As a result, many users will likely ask for a refund on their annual app subscriptions.
Selig anticipates that he could be responsible for a substantial sum of $250,000 if that happens. As a result, it's more affordable for him to shut down.
Read on AppleInsider
Comments
And herein is the issue with "subscriptions." As the old saying goes: any warranty is only as good as the company issuing it. When they disappear, so does your warranty.
I would have thought developers escrowed any advance they receive for services for just this situation. Guess that's not the case, hunh?
I guess all the Reddit channel black outs achieved diddly squat.
Reddit has said they don't want to shut down 3rd party client apps, but they also just want to be paid for the infrastructure they have built and maintain.
• Apollo shuts down
• Apollo is re-written to be more efficient in its communication.
The protest is supposed to accomplish the first point [narrator: it won't], and the developer has said the third point wasn't really feasible, so... surprise! We get option 2.
So users suffer and Reddit gets a black eye. But the internet has a really short memory
You're also talking about making developers bridge the gap in the event that an API they use decides to change their ToS. I don't think that's something they should necessarily be responsible for.
The main issue though, is that Reddit gave the dev a month from announcing the new rate before starting to pay at the rate. There's no chance a dev can roll out a significantly more efficient version in a month.
Threadjack (but I'm Vision Pro curious): how exactly are Apple API's controlled? Apple has a strict "no porn" policy, but the new Vision Pro shirley has "porn industry applications" written all over it. Asking for a friend.
Otherwise, starting Monday, thousands of subreddits—including some of the top default subs like funny, pics, science, and more—are either locking or going completely private.
The CEO of reddit did an AMA yesterday. It didn't go well. If someone was considering an investment in reddit, Huffman's mercurial responses and doubling-down on false accusations against Apollo's developer should give them pause.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_platforms_with_at_least_100_million_active_users
Reddit also isn't shutting down, they are just charging more to use their API, which isn't affordable for some 3rd party apps.
There are suggestions this has to do with an upcoming IPO:
https://www.reuters.com/technology/reddit-aims-ipo-second-half-2023-information-2023-02-14/
This is always what happens when people cater to the greedy 0.1% of the world, they just want more money at everyone else's expense. Reddit, like SnapChat, Instagram and so on, are not highly profitable business models because their business is ads and unless their ad revenue goes above their costs, they lose money and burn investor capital:
https://checkandshake.com/2021/12/28/reddit-ipo-unprofitable-despite-its-growth-seeking-alpha/
It was a similar situation with Twitter, it was losing a lot of money at the time it went public and continued for years, the people running it couldn't wait to cash out and sell it on:
https://www.netcials.com/financial-net-profit-year-quarter-usa/1418091-TWITTER-INC/
The ad business model is not reliable. 3rd party apps can block ads, advertisers can go elsewhere, ad revenue can decline. Subscriptions are a more reliable way to get sustained revenue. But of course for trashy community content sites like Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc. people don't want to pay for it because it's not worth paying for.
We'll see more of this kind of thing happening. Billionaires never stop wanting growth in their portfolios and they will buy up everything with growth potential. In order to milk it for growth, it comes at the expense of the value people originally got from it.