Beginning on Monday, more than 3,000 subreddits have declared blackouts in opposition to the social media platform’s modifications. A number of well-known third-party apps that utilized Reddit’s Application Programming Interface (API) will be shut down as a result of the changes, which include charging developers for the API.
During the 48-hour protest, some of the site’s most popular subreddits, including r/videos and r/lifeprotips, won’t be open to visitors.
Since its debut seven years ago, Reddit’s API has been available without charge. Developers creating Reddit apps could ask the firm for data, opening countless possibilities for UI customization and subreddit curation. In essence, the API enables two apps to transmit and receive data without really gaining access to one another.
Impact of Reddit Blackout
Apollo is one of the third-party applications impacted by these changes. The app was made by Christian Selig, a former Apple intern, and was designed exclusively for iOS and iPadOS.
On May 31, Selig announced that each 50 million request would now require $12,000 from Apollo. The startup will need to pay almost $20 million a year to maintain its service, taking into account the 7 billion requests Apollo made to Reddit’s API in just April.
“I’m deeply disappointed in this price,” Selig wrote in a Reddit post. “While Reddit has been communicative and civil throughout this process with half a dozen phone calls back and forth that I thought went really well, I don’t see how this pricing is anything based in reality or remotely reasonable. I hope it goes without saying that I don’t have that kind of money or would even know how to charge it to a credit card.
“For Apollo, the average user uses 344 requests daily, or 10,600 monthly. With the proposed API pricing, the average user in Apollo would cost $2.50, which is 20x higher than a generous estimate of what each user brings Reddit in revenue,” he wrote. Apollo, he added, will likely not be able to survive these changes.
“I asked Reddit if they were flexible on this pricing or not, and they stated that it’s their understanding that no, this will be the pricing.”
Rif and Relay are two additional third-party Reddit apps that can incur comparable expenses.
The move by Reddit to charge for its API is reminiscent of one made by Twitter earlier this year, which required developers to purchase a subscription plan for third-party apps. The change affects accounts that use Twitter’s API to publish news about safety and transportation in addition to user experience and customization.
