Reddit’s CEO isn’t budging on API changes, say goodbye to your favorite apps
Reddit is one of the most popular internet forums at the moment, and while Reddit does have its own official app, it pales in comparison compared to other popular third-party Reddit apps out there, such as Apollo.
Unfortunately, it looks like those third-party apps will be shutting down due to Reddit’s API changes in which the company will start charging these developers to access Reddit’s content.
Now, Reddit’s proposed API changes aren’t new, but we suppose some have hoped that due to the immense backlash and with many popular subreddits going dark in protest of these changes that maybe the company would have a change of heart. That doesn’t appear to be the case as during an interview with The Verge, Reddit’s CEO Steve Huffman essentially doubled down on the company’s plans and doesn’t appear to be budging.
According to Huffman, this is a purely business decision. The CEO claims that prior to this when Reddit was providing free API access, developers were making millions from their apps while at the same time costing Reddit themselves about $10 million in infrastructure costs.
While some apps might stick around, apps such as Apollo will be shutting down because once these API changes are implemented, it would cost the developer about $20 million a year to keep it running, which would not be financially feasible.
Source: The Verge