Shutting them down will bring back most users (get real, not many will quit altogether) to the official app and will be served Reddit's ads, so Reddit will get the money.
How exactly is it not going to work in Reddit's favor?
It's not just about the ads. It's about the telemetry/etc and being able to link the user via other apps that collect data to correlate.
> How exactly is it not going to work in Reddit's favor?
- Reddit's official app is kinda trash. (I do use it, but it's so bad I usually just browse HN instead.)
- It's a reminder that Reddit has been getting more and more user hostile since Huffman took over as CEO again.
- Tying to above, I don't personally have confidence that Reddit will follow through on their promises of better mod tools in a timely fashion. This (along with recent developments) means a lot of dedicated mods are just going to give up, and the overall content quality will get worse still.
It might help their IPO but I doubt it will help the long term viability.
Betting the house on the fact that nobody will leave seems reckless to me.