It's pretty hard to believe that there isn't any revenue impact. It's a ghost town. Weird complaints about DoorDash are on the front page.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Reddit CEO: Apollo-Related Subreddit Blackouts 'Will Pass,' No Significant Revenue Impact So Far
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Let’s face it, the days of free stuff on the internet are long gone, especially for platforms that have scaled well over time. Either you pay a fee, or you’re the product. Reddit users have generated over a decade of content, that will now be harvested and monetized. Anyone that wants to access that content better have a good use for it, cause they’ll pay. It’s really sad, but this is just the reality of what happens to tech with a high ROI potential.
I’ve deleted my account a few months ago, when I understood that all of my posts over the years were language model training material to be sold for a fee.
I’ve deleted my account a few months ago, when I understood that all of my posts over the years were language model training material to be sold for a fee.
so digusting and manipulative to suggest that employees will be confronted or even assaulted because the public is disgruntled with Reddit's new trajectory.
You've completely missed the point. Third party app developers were willing to adjust their pricing model to pass along to users any reasonable costs to use the API, including making up for lost revenue since said apps block advertising and the algorithmic timeline. I would happily pay $50 a year—directly to Apollo's developer, not to Reddit—for the privilege.
But Huffman came back with a ridiculous fee structure that would have cost Apollo's sole owner and developer $20 million a year, payable in advance... and to add insult to injury, he had to make all that happen within 30 days with no room for negotiation.
Marketing caught on to this in early 2018(?) and probably earlier tbh. There was a r/skincareaddiction drama detailing how a person was working in company that paid workers to write positive reviews for certain brands. Honestly, its nothing new when it comes to marketing but it really makes you rethink how trustworthy anecdotes on reddit can be. It's best to be weary when it comes to somewhat popular subreddits that deal with anything where products could be sold to the users.
Another example could be people pushing Eluktronics laptops on the gaminglaptop subreddit. Few years back there was huge positive feedback on those from random accounts that had only just started posting in that subreddit suddenly. It was awfully suspicious. Also this might be hearsay but I vaguely recall mods were given free laptops as well from eluktronics.
Would love to see Google and other search engines completely scrub reddit from their search results to spite Spez.
So to make you feel good, you want helpful Reddit threads to be removed from search engines just to spite them for asking a developer who has been leeching off them for 8 years to finally pay up after he made millions off of them?
Or you pay a fee and you're still the product. A double whammy.
Taken out of Trump's handbook of idiotic fearmongering. Like anyone would attack someone wearing Reddit gear in public. What the **** is this man on ...
Or you can pay a fee and still be the product, like it happens with Apple.
Hilarious stance to take when you see the number and unconnectedness of subs that went dark.
This won’t cause large numbers normies to leave but it will cost them users and the stink of this will linger.
This won’t cause large numbers normies to leave but it will cost them users and the stink of this will linger.
Asking $20M is reasonable to you? Giving 30 days for developers to somehow come up with a plan to reduce costs is reasonable to you? I don't even know how to start with this.
He’s not wrong though, people are just finding alternative subs while the big ones are private, just look at the front page. Unless the subs end up going private indefinitely, the two day blackout didn’t change a thing as evident by the CEO comments.
I think you misunderstand the situation. The app developers were willing to consider paying for API access. But Huffman came back with a fee structure that's 20X the norm, and only gave them 30 days to implement the new system. It was obvious that their real intention was to kill third party apps altogether.
Also remember that everything of value on Reddit is user-generated. All the content, posts, comments, curation, creation of subreddits, and moderation of spam and policy violations. Reddit doesn't pay ANYONE for any of that. So if we're going to get sanctimonious about people not wanting to pay for something, that conversation should focus on Reddit.
Last edited:
95% of the links in google and other areas are broken right now anyways. If the reddit threads are going to be closed indefinitely, might as well remove them since you can't go to them anyways.
That message did unfortunately remind me of bad political leaders like him
There's a legal word for that. It's called an "idiot" - though in some parts of the country, it is referred to as a "sucker." 🤪
While I want Reddit to bend the knee and cave into the demands, I realize that, sadly, they won't, and it's in their best interest not to. If they reverse course, then it would only embolden the users to demand for more and more. I think that's what the staff at Reddit are thinking: to be extremely stubborn to the bitter end until the users give up and let things happen (like with every other change).
Maybe things will be different this time, but I'm not holding my breath.
Maybe things will be different this time, but I'm not holding my breath.
Disagree. As an example, if 10% of all Reddit users use Apollo, and those 10% leave Reddit completely, then Reddit has gained nothing but lost potential revenue. If they lowered their charges for API to be more reasonable, they could retain those 10% users and make more money off of them as compared to now.
Most Apollo users seem pretty passionate and frankly I don't see them moving to the Reddit app once Apollo is shut down. Those lost users coupled with this PR nightmare Reddit has brought on themself can't possibly leave them with more active users now than they had before. I think this is Reddit's turning point, similar to what has already happened to Facebook, Twitter, etc.
Even worse, you will pay but ALSO your data will still be sold (so you are still the product).
The subreddits that are active still, will simply get more traffic now.
Just to throw some fun into the mix. There are some mastodon posts saying Reddit is removing moderator status for some big sub mods.
wegotthiscovered.com
How many subreddits are on Reddit?
With a chunk of the site's subs down, how many are left?
wegotthiscovered.com