Final week, information broke that Reddit could be charging upwards of $20 million per yr for the operation of a preferred iOS-only Reddit app known as Apollo. Afterward, Apollo’s developer and different builders of Reddit apps got here ahead to say they might doubtless have to shut down ought to these fees turn out to be a actuality.
Now, with third-party Reddit apps hanging within the steadiness, we’ve heard a couple of sitewide protest to happen on June 12. That protest includes a number of subreddits with over 10 million subscribers, together with the favored r/Aww and r/Pics. These subreddits, amongst tons of of others, will “go darkish” on June 12 for at the very least 48 hours until Reddit cancels or satisfactorily amends its proposed coverage.
Android Authority reached out to Reddit to get an announcement on the upcoming protest. The corporate gave us 5 small statements, every addressing particular considerations of the final group. Beneath, we have now printed them in an unedited state and included our personal commentary.
Third-party Reddit apps: Statements from Reddit
Expansive entry to knowledge has influence and prices concerned; we spend multi-millions of {dollars} on internet hosting charges and Reddit must be pretty paid to proceed supporting high-usage third-party apps. Our pricing relies on utilization ranges that we measure to be similar to our personal prices.
Charging for API entry is nothing new. Many Reddit apps — together with Apollo and the favored RIF (reddit is enjoyable) — even have paid tiers. It’s truthful that Reddit ought to require builders to pay for API entry, particularly when these devs earn money off that API. Nonetheless, in response to math from the developer of Apollo, the amount of cash Reddit is asking for is allegedly 20x the quantity Reddit makes off the typical Redditor. Clearly, this math is a bit biased coming from Apollo, however questions stay about how Reddit ought to be “pretty paid,” to make use of its personal phrases.
Builders are chargeable for the effectivity of their apps and experiences. Some apps are extra environment friendly (and require considerably much less API calls); Apollo is notably much less environment friendly than different third-party apps. There’s a chart on this put up that outlines alternatives for effectivity.
Apollo not being as environment friendly because it may very well be would possibly assist cut back its potential prices. Nonetheless, by Apollo’s admission, the typical Apollo person makes 344 API requests every day, and Apollo noticed seven billion requests in April 2023. Even when Apollo may streamline API requests by 50% — which might be a really lofty if not unattainable objective — that will nonetheless be 3.5 billion requests every month, or $10 million annually. That’s a giant leap to go from $0 to $10 million.
The overwhelming majority of API customers is not going to should pay for entry; not all third-party apps utilization requires paid entry. The Reddit Information API is free to make use of throughout the printed price limits as long as apps will not be monetized.
The issue right here is that the overwhelming majority of API customers will not be what Redditors appear to care about. In keeping with the varied threads associated to this concern, together with the thread saying the protest, customers don’t need to lose their third-party Reddit apps that enable full entry to Reddit with no need to make use of the official Reddit app or a browser. This expertise can’t be duplicated utilizing non-monetized apps as a result of the developer(s) of the app should be compensated for his or her work.
API entry is free for moderator instruments and bots. Moreover, we’re rolling out a variety of instruments to boost the moderator expertise on Reddit. Here’s a put up that expands on this.
This assertion references the outcry surrounding moderating subreddits. Every subreddit wants a mod, an unpaid chief who controls and oversees that subreddit. Moderating a subreddit is a large process, particularly if it has thousands and thousands of customers. To make this simpler, there’s a bevy of third-party Reddit apps that give mods particular instruments. In keeping with protestors, at the very least a few of these apps will now not work when the brand new API restrictions turn out to be lively. Nonetheless, it’s potential Reddit is working with moderation software builders to make sure their particular instruments is not going to require paid entry to APIs. Within the meantime, although, Reddit’s personal “instruments to boost the moderator expertise” is not going to be useful till they’re broadly out there, which as of now, they aren’t.
We’re dedicated to fostering a protected 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 conserving our customers and knowledge protected.
Lastly, this assertion harkens again to Reddit’s initially introduced intention to cost for API entry within the first place: person and knowledge security. Reddit’s unique assertion on this was to “guarantee builders have the instruments and data they should proceed to make use of Reddit safely, defend our customers’ privateness and safety, and cling to native laws.” Nonetheless, Reddit’s statements to date don’t clarify intimately how charging vital quantities of cash for API entry protects customers apart from merely inflicting there to be much less entry to the information APIs themselves.
