Third-party Reddit apps may not be capable to survive

Replace, Could 31, 2023 (06:13 PM ET): Within the authentic article beneath, we mentioned we had reached out to Reddit for some readability on this subject concerning third-party Reddit apps. We now have a response from the corporate.

A Reddit spokesperson had this to say:

We’ve been involved with third-party apps and builders, together with Apollo, over the course of the final six weeks following our preliminary announcement about API adjustments, and our stance on third-party apps has not modified. We’re dedicated to fostering a secure and accountable developer ecosystem round Reddit — builders and third-party apps could make Reddit higher and accomplish that in a sustainable and mutually-beneficial partnership, whereas additionally holding our customers and information secure.

Expansive entry to information has affect and prices concerned, and by way of security and privateness we’ve got an obligation to our communities to be accountable stewards of knowledge.

Lastly, Reddit information for industrial use might want to adhere to our up to date API phrases of service and premium entry program. We’ve had a long-standing coverage in our previous phrases that outlined industrial and non-commercial use, however sadly a few of these agreements weren’t adhered to so we clarified our phrases and reached out to pick organizations to work with them on compliance and a paid premium entry tier.

It appears like Reddit just isn’t backing away from this variation. Judging from this assertion and Christian Selig’s weblog put up, most third-party Reddit apps may not survive.

Authentic article, Could 31, 2023 (04:22 PM ET): In April this yr, Reddit introduced some important adjustments coming down the pipeline. In a blog post, the corporate confirmed it might start charging some builders for third-party entry to Reddit APIs. The language of the weblog put up was extremely obscure, referencing solely “a brand new premium entry level” for API entry for builders that “require further capabilities, greater utilization limits, and broader utilization rights.” In different phrases, the extra information devs use, the extra it can value them.

Now, we even have some numbers to affiliate with this upcoming coverage change. In keeping with Christian Selig — the lead developer of Apollo, an iOS-only third-party Reddit app — Reddit plans on charging about $12,000 per 50 million requests. This would possibly sound cheap to non-developers, however Selig makes it clear that that is horrible information.

In keeping with Selig, Apollo noticed a whopping seven billion API requests in April 2023. Doing the maths, he would have wanted to pay Reddit $1.7 million that month. That will equate to round $20 million annually.

Like a variety of third-party Reddit apps, Apollo has a paid tier. However, even with that revenue, the numbers don’t add up. “The common Apollo person makes use of 344 requests per day, which might value $2.50 monthly,” Selig says in a Reddit post on the matter. That quantity “is over double what the subscription at the moment prices, so I’d be within the purple each month,” he mentioned.

After all, Selig (and different devs who run Reddit apps) might simply cost customers more cash. Nonetheless, Selig thinks that the sum of money Reddit plans to cost is “not based mostly in actuality.” He goes on to do some extrapolation of how a lot cash the typical Reddit person brings in, and involves the conclusion that it’s about $0.12 every month.

You learn that proper: if these numbers are true, Reddit is asking for devs to pay 20x greater than what every person brings in income to the corporate. Clearly, Selig thinks that’s unfair.

Selig stops in need of saying that he would shut Apollo down if this coverage goes by. Nonetheless, he makes it very clear that he couldn’t afford to maintain it, which means Apollo would wish to go darkish. It goes with out saying that if this occurs for Apollo, all however solely the very smallest third-party Reddit apps would observe go well with.

Android Authority has reached out to Reddit for an announcement on this. We are going to replace this text if and once we hear again.