Reddit’s controversial API pricing change driving third-party apps out of business has taken a strange turn. In an AMA today, Reddit co-founder and CEO Steve Huffman, aka u/spez, doubled down on accusations against the developer of the popular third-party app Apollo, which the company had previously accused of operating inefficiently and not being a good “API” user.
Huffman’s AMA revealed that the corporation wouldn’t modify the API modifications despite community criticism, including a site-wide protest from thousands of subreddits. Huffman also criticized Apollo creator Christian Selig’s “behavior and communications” as “all over the place” and said Reddit wouldn’t cooperate with him.
Selig was the first to warn that Reddit’s new API fees would render the Apollo app unviable. He said that the new rules would cost $20 million each year—money the app doesn’t produce. Selig stated this week that the app would close on June 30, ahead of the July 1 API pricing change.
Sync, RIF, and Reddplant are among third-party apps shutting down. Huffman initially accused Selig of extortion, according to Selig’s lengthy post on Reddit.
Selig questioned why Reddit was changing its API conditions to push third-party apps out of business rather than buying them out as it did with Alien Blue, an older Reddit client it acquired in 2014. He suggested that Reddit pay him $20 million yearly to shut down Apollo. According to him, the comment wasn’t serious. “This is mostly a joke,” he said on the call.
It seems like an attempt to comprehend why the firm would undertake a move that will anger its community. Selig said a Reddit worker on the conversation initially misinterpreted his comment as a “threat.” On the call, the contact apologized and clarified. Selig recorded the call (legal in Canada) and brought receipts.
Huffman later called Selig “threatening” Reddit in a moderator calls. Reddit’s stance hasn’t changed, Huffman said today. One AMA participant asked Huffman, “what were you thinking with your attempt to discredit Apollo by claiming that Christian threatened and blackmailed you?” Surprising response. Huffman’s response was straightforward, unlike most firms’ PR-speak.
“His ‘joke’ is the least of our issues,” the CEO wrote. “His behavior and communications with us has been all over the place—saying one thing to us while saying something completely different externally; recording and leaking a private phone call—so I don’t know how we could do business with him.”
Apollo’s iOS-first and user-friendly design was featured at Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference this week before Reddit’s API policy change put it out of business. After this incident, prominent coders supported Selig.
Halide co-founder Sebastiaan de With tweeted on Thursday that the Reddit administration was lying, slandering, and vilifying Selig. Quote-tweeters agreed. Huffman seems unconcerned about these decisions’ consequences, site-wide protest or not unless Reddit’s board intervenes.
He answered many angry API change queries in the AMA. These varied from people criticizing the model (why not a profit-sharing model like Epic does with Unreal?) and the constrained schedule to those questioning Reddit’s drive to profit over community participation. “We’ll stay profit-driven until profits arrive,” the CEO said. We’re unprofitable, unlike some 3P apps.
Huffman said Apollo, Reddit is Fun, and Sync will close before API charging takes effect. We’ll discuss the other apps. We understand our tight timeline; we are happy to work with anybody who wants to.”
“This is a blatant lie,” ReddPlanet’s developer (u/lupeski) remarked in the comments. Another indie app developer reported they had requested Enterprise API access three times with no response.
Reddit has previously reported on the rest of the AMA. The API changes’ community reaction hasn’t swayed the firm. As said, a few accessibility-focused apps will remain in its carve-out.
Huffman further stressed that while The NYT report framed the API pricing adjustments as a strategy to limit access to its forums, which have become a training ground for large language models (LLMs), this is not the only reason. The corporation spends “tens of millions of dollars” supporting the third-party app ecosystem, which has to be curtailed. (And it’s “actively discussing” with Reddit-training AI businesses).
The exec said that as part of a “stricter” regulatory environment, mature content will be blocked via its Data API on July 5, 2023, although explicit content will still be available.
