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Comment by shmatt | Hacker News Reader

That small time developer who discussed paying millions also said it came out to $2.5/month on average[1]. Which actually isn't that bad for the service Reddit is providing

One of the problems mentioned in the many Reddit threads discussing the issue about Apollo, is that its creator was selling ULTRA LIFETIME MEMBERSHIPS[2]. Yes, they were charging people money, taking it, then using a free API to deliver paying members their value. The developer now feels he cannot charge lifetime members an extra $2.5/month because he promised them he wouldn't

Beyond the discussion of is Reddit about to die or not, selling LIFETIME access to someone elses free API is a dumb move, which will always end badly

I think Reddit charging $2.5/month for API access is more than fair

[1] https://www.theverge.com/2023/5/31/23743993/reddit-apollo-cl...

[2] https://www.reddit.com/r/apolloapp/comments/r3npbm/last_call...

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Then Reddit can and should charge that to the user directly. Not screw over app developers like this.

Perhaps you should read Christian’s post on Reddit [1] where he described, in detail, what this truly means and how he was effectively lied to by Reddit; and an interview where he states that he actually understands Reddit charging for API access — he doesn’t understand why the burden is being put on the app developers and why they didn’t give app developers considerable more time to make the adjustment with respect to their own pricing [2].

Reddit isn’t wrong for trying to monetize their API to cover service and server costs. Reddit is absolutely wrong for lying to app developers, charging an egregious amount to the app developers, and for not giving them enough time to be able to change their pricing terms and not leave developers on the hook for millions while existing pricing tiers (such as someone who paid in advance) still have months before renewal.

[1] https://reddit.com/r/apolloapp/comments/13ws4w3/had_a_call_w...

[2] https://youtu.be/Ypwgu1BpaO0

Key word here is 'on average'. Most people are not going to spend $25/year for access to a third party reddit app. That leaves the hardcore users who are going to cost the dev much more than $2.50/mo, and when ads are no longer able to be served and NSFW content is also gone where is the profit then?

Putting aside the bad salesmanship and planning of selling a forever license, it is absolutely way too much money.

Third party apps are billed in aggregate each month. It’s up to them to decide how that’s split between users.

Don't move the goalposts.

> I think Reddit charging $2.5/month for API access is more than fair

That's my point though. Reddit is NOT charging $2.5/mo for API access. It is charging a set amount per app (based on overall usage), and the developer has to now be in the business of creating and charging for a whole new subscription themselves to make up for what they have to pay Reddit.

With the cost per request model, third party apps have more autonomy to dictate how much users pay per month.

Major third party developers are all unanimous in saying that they do not want this autonomy. This puts too much of a burden on them, and they have virtually zero time to make broad changes to their apps before getting hit with huge bills.

It’s reductive to say Reddit is providing the service, the app developer is also providing a service. The value originally is provided by the communities, then Reddit adds something on top, and the indie app devs add some more value.

> I think Reddit charging $2.5/month for API access is more than fair

I don't. I agree with you on the lifetime Apollo access. That was dumb. But $2.5/user/month is crazy for Reddit. Facebook incurs around $2/user/month in costs. I'm sorry, but there's just no comparison in terms of the platform features, stability, performance, and infrastructure. With 430 million monthly active users, either Reddit is valuing their cost at $12.9 billion annually (pro rata), or they're adding a very healthy profit margin to that charge. It's clearly the latter.

The _average_ user costs $2.50/mo in API requests. I’m willing to bet people who pay for the “ultra” tier of an app are above average users at best, especially when you consider Apollo also has free users.

lifetime memberships are useless because a corporation can be dissolved in seconds and you can bet that lifetime for free was bound to the the life of the corporation.

Will he have to refund those lifetime members?

Smart on him for selling those…

He won’t have to and I wouldn’t request it either. The cost was fairly minimal for the amount of hours I’ve spent in Apollo. The only app that makes Reddit usable on iOS (RIP Alien Blue)

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