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action or later. Please see Debugging in WordPress for more information. (This message was added in version 6.7.0.) in /home4/scienrds/scienceandnerds/wp-includes/functions.php on line 6114Source:https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2023\/05\/31\/popular-reddit-app-apollo-may-go-out-of-business-over-reddits-new-unaffordable-api-pricing\/<\/a><\/br> The maker of Apollo<\/a>, one of the most popular third-party mobile apps for browsing Reddit, may have to close up shop due to Reddit\u2019s recently announced new API pricing terms. App developer Christian Selig shared today that Reddit\u2019s API pricing appears to be bad news for the future of third-party Reddit apps as it would now cost him $20 million per year to keep running Apollo\u2019s business as is. Customer backlash over Reddit\u2019s terms is already growing in light of the news, given Apollo\u2019s long history of thoughtful app updates, iOS-friendly design, and general ease of use, which has made the app a popular alternative to Reddit\u2019s official client.<\/p>\n The news is unexpected, as Reddit had assured developers<\/a> the API pricing changes wouldn\u2019t impact those who were building apps to help people use Reddit. Instead, the move was positioned as a way to protect Reddit\u2019s sizable internet forum site from becoming free fodder for companies training their AI systems on large swaths of the internet. Essentially, Reddit wanted to get paid for its \u201ccorpus of data,\u201d founder and CEO Steve Huffman told The New York Times<\/a> in an interview.<\/p>\n According to his comments, developers who wanted to build apps and bots and researchers who wanted to study Reddit for academic or non-commercial purposes wouldn\u2019t have to pay<\/a> for the API, he said.<\/p>\n But Selig says that will not be the case, as it turns out.<\/p>\n In a post on Reddit, the developer shared<\/a> that, according to phone conversations he\u2019s had with Reddit, 50 million requests will now cost $12,000 under the new API\u2019s terms \u2014 \u201ca figure far more than I ever could have imagined,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n \u201cApollo made 7 billion requests last month, which would put it at about 1.7 million dollars per month, or 20 million US dollars per year,\u201d Selig explained.<\/p>\n The developer also said that making the app only available to subscribers in order to cut down on the number of requests would not be a solution, either, as the average Apollo user uses 344 requests per day, which would cost Apollo $2.50 per month. That figure is over double what the subscription currently costs, Selig said.<\/p>\n The Apollo maker had engaged with Reddit representatives across multiple conversations to discuss these pricing concerns and while he characterized those conversations as civil and communicative, he expressed that he\u2019s \u201cdeeply disappointed\u201d with the results. (The company also gave him permission to post the details of the call, which is why he\u2019s sharing the information on Reddit and elsewhere on social media, he said.)<\/p>\n Reddit\u2019s new API pricing would effectively put Apollo out of business, it seems.<\/p>\n Apollo today has around 1.3 million to 1.5 million monthly active users, Selig told TechCrunch, and roughly 900K daily active users. Third-party estimates from app intelligence provider data.ai confirm Apollo has had close to 5 million global installs to date. While Selig declined to share specifics in terms of Apollo\u2019s revenue, he says \u201cIt\u2019s not even in the realm of possible or close to what Reddit is charging.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIn fact framing it differently, even if I kicked out every user other than the ones that pay a subscription, I would still be in the red every month,\u201d Selig lamented. He also says there\u2019s no plan B in the works as he wasn\u2019t expecting to receive this sort of news.<\/p>\n Reddit was reached for comment but has not yet provided a statement. We plan to update with the company\u2019s comments when provided.<\/p>\n Reddit\u2019s decision to overprice its API access follows a similar move by Twitter. The latter ended up cutting off a large swath of the Twitter third-party developer ecosystem from being able to afford access to Twitter\u2019s developer tools. As a result, numerous<\/a> Twitter apps, clients, and services have since<\/a> shut down<\/a> or pivoted<\/a> to focus on other areas, like supporting<\/a> the open-source Twitter rival Mastodon, for example.<\/p>\n Twitter finally eased back a bit on its onerous pricing and last week introduced a new $5000-per-month API tier<\/a> meant to make access slightly more affordable. The new tier sits between its $100-per-month basic tier and the $42,000-per-month enterprise tier but still doesn\u2019t solve the problem for smaller businesses, given they\u2019d need $60,000 per year to make use of it.<\/p>\n Apollo first launched on the App Store in 2017 and let\u2019s just say, I was a fan<\/a>. At the time, the app delivered a unique experience with features like customizable gestures, a media viewer, a full Markdown writing editor, and other features inspired by Reddit user feedback. Over the years, Apollo\u2019s users have responded to the app\u2019s customizability and power user features, as well as its iOS-friendly design. Selig said he aimed to build a Reddit app that felt like it could have been built by Apple itself.<\/p>\n The developer was also quick to adopt new iOS features, as it recently did with its launch of Lock Screen widgets for iOS 16,<\/a> for example. In addition, Selig had a little fun with the iPhone\u2019s new\u00a0\u201cDynamic Island<\/a>\u201d user interface update that turned the pill-shaped notch at the top of the iPhone 14 Pro into a tappable and interactive feature for notifications. He invented clever Tamagotchi-styled pets, or \u201cPixel Pals,\u201d that could run around on the notch. The pets were so popular, they soon got their own dedicated mobile app too<\/a>.<\/p>\n Since sharing his concerns on Reddit a few hours ago, Selig\u2019s post about Apollo\u2019s future has received 8.6K upvotes and counting. Not surprisingly, the app\u2019s fans are fairly upset at this news, calling Reddit greedy, threatening to leave, and promising to support whatever Selig decides to build next, if this is truly the end for their favorite app.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n <\/br><\/br><\/br><\/p>\n
\nPopular Reddit app Apollo may go out of business over Reddit\u2019s new, unaffordable API pricing<\/br>
\n2023-05-31 21:41:34<\/br><\/p>\n