In a shocking development, Christian Selig, the Canadian founder of the popular third-party Reddit client app Apollo, warned about the potential collapse of the platform due to Reddit’s new API pricing model. The Halifax, Nova Scotia-based developer claimed that the fresh pricing structure could cost Apollo as much as $20 million per year.
Selig said, “I had a call with Reddit to discuss the new pricing, and unfortunately, it seems that the announced pricing is close to Twitter’s pricing model. To keep Apollo running as it currently is, we would have to pay Reddit an unimaginable sum of $20 million annually.”
The main issue stems from Reddit’s decision to price 50 million requests at $12,000, a figure Selig found staggering. “Apollo made 7 billion requests last month, which translates to around 1.7 million dollars per month or 20 million US dollars per year,” Selig explained. He expressed his deep disappointment and concern, revealing that continuing with this price, even for subscription users only, would still put Apollo in the red each month.
Highlighting the contrast between Reddit’s approach and other platforms, Selig said, “I pay Imgur, a site with a similar user base and media profile as Reddit, $166 for the same 50 million API calls. Reddit’s pricing is not only out of touch with reality, but it’s also contradictory to their initial assurance that the pricing would be reasonable and not follow Twitter’s footsteps.”
You thought Twitter’s API pricing is bad? Looks like Reddit is following with its own insane pricing. Twitter’s API change shutdown apps such as Tweetbot.
Selig also expressed his confusion over Reddit’s claims that its pricing is based in reality. He stated, “Using Reddit’s own numbers, their revenue estimates fall far short of justifying the proposed API pricing. At generous estimates, each Reddit user contributes $1.40 per year in revenue, or $0.12 monthly. However, with Reddit’s proposed API pricing, the average user in Apollo would cost $2.50, which is 20x higher than what each user brings in revenue.”
While acknowledging Reddit’s willingness to communicate throughout this process, Selig was disheartened by their response regarding pricing flexibility. “I asked Reddit if they were open to negotiating this pricing, and they stated that this will be the pricing, with no room for adjustments,” Selig shared. He added, “I must say, this new reality is going to require some serious rethinking on our end.”
The news of Reddit’s new pricing structure and its implications pose a significant challenge for Apollo and other third-party client apps. Is Reddit trying to crush third-party apps? Because this new pricing model will do just that.
