Really looks like the reddit api change was the best thing that could have happened for these reddit app devs, as now they’ve got people lining up to pay them money and/or view ads on a platform that doesn’t have ads in the first place.
I’m sure they did, but that free ride to the millions of dollars they were pocketing came to and end because they didn’t want to pay. Now they’re here to milk this sites users dry.
But that price has to be reasonable, and should come with more than 30 days notice.
Should it? Says who? Why?
A $5/month subscription to use the app is more than enough to pay reddit what they want. Remember, many of these app developers have made literally millions of dollars from reddit without giving reddit a cent.
Says any business. You don’t go out and tell the people who rely on your existence to change their shit in “30 days or GTFO” other than if you give zero fucks and have no decency. Especially if you gave no indication that it was a problem for more than a decade.
The boost dev in his whinge post about the new costs said that his revenue was in the millions of dollars a year. His costs are……his time. There’s no way the other devs for apps like sync and RiF also didn’t make millions.
Also Reddit the company doesn’t care about third party app devs leeching off their product. They cost them money. They don’t give them anything in return. That’s why they started charging for the api. 30 days is more than enough to simply increase your existing subscription costs and remove free access. I say this as a developer myself. That’s a half a day job at most, including taking a nap.
30 days is more than enough to simply increase your existing subscription costs and remove free access
You may be a developer, but you clearly don’t know how the businesses side actually functions, especially if you’re self employed. You remove free access and you lose hundreds of thousands of users and millions of ad impressions, as well as plummeting user acquisition since people don’t buy apps. The subscription they had at the time couldnt (or barely could) cover API access. If you start charging more, you lose more users, and you also have to refund anyone that doesn’t like the increased price. You’d be lucky to keep any whole percentage of your userbase.
If it’s your sole source of income, your expenses are very likely to be largely inflexible. You’re telling me you could handle a 30 days notice to cut spending by nearly 100% while also scrambling to figure out how to completely change your monetization in a sustainable way? What if you have a mortgage? Car payments? Other loans?
It’s not as simple as flicking a switch. Even sole proprietors plan out their business 6-10 months or a year+ in advance. Giving them 30 days notice is telling them you don’t want them to exist in the first place under the guise of generosity.
You’re overlooking the fact that these apps don’t cost these people more than their time to maintain. They don’t have hosting costs. The costs are literally the devs time, that’s it.
Would they make less money going subscription only? Absolutely. Would they lose money? Absolutely not. Completely removing the app means they make even less money - $0 in fact.
Most of these apps already had subscriptions. It would be a config value or database change to update the price for new subscriptions, and one line of code to only allow users that have a subscription to use the app.
Also if your entire livelihood relies on making your entire business off the back of a free api to someone else’s business, you can’t complain. When this happens. Your business model is bad, and then cutting off your access is a known risk.
Really looks like the reddit api change was the best thing that could have happened for these reddit app devs, as now they’ve got people lining up to pay them money and/or view ads on a platform that doesn’t have ads in the first place.
They probably made more on reddit as there were like 100x the users.
I’m sure they did, but that free ride to the millions of dollars they were pocketing came to and end because they didn’t want to pay. Now they’re here to milk this sites users dry.
… They literally offered to pay. But that price has to be reasonable, and should come with more than 30 days notice.
Should it? Says who? Why?
A $5/month subscription to use the app is more than enough to pay reddit what they want. Remember, many of these app developers have made literally millions of dollars from reddit without giving reddit a cent.
Says any business. You don’t go out and tell the people who rely on your existence to change their shit in “30 days or GTFO” other than if you give zero fucks and have no decency. Especially if you gave no indication that it was a problem for more than a decade.
Honestly doubtful
The boost dev in his whinge post about the new costs said that his revenue was in the millions of dollars a year. His costs are……his time. There’s no way the other devs for apps like sync and RiF also didn’t make millions.
Also Reddit the company doesn’t care about third party app devs leeching off their product. They cost them money. They don’t give them anything in return. That’s why they started charging for the api. 30 days is more than enough to simply increase your existing subscription costs and remove free access. I say this as a developer myself. That’s a half a day job at most, including taking a nap.
You may be a developer, but you clearly don’t know how the businesses side actually functions, especially if you’re self employed. You remove free access and you lose hundreds of thousands of users and millions of ad impressions, as well as plummeting user acquisition since people don’t buy apps. The subscription they had at the time couldnt (or barely could) cover API access. If you start charging more, you lose more users, and you also have to refund anyone that doesn’t like the increased price. You’d be lucky to keep any whole percentage of your userbase.
If it’s your sole source of income, your expenses are very likely to be largely inflexible. You’re telling me you could handle a 30 days notice to cut spending by nearly 100% while also scrambling to figure out how to completely change your monetization in a sustainable way? What if you have a mortgage? Car payments? Other loans?
It’s not as simple as flicking a switch. Even sole proprietors plan out their business 6-10 months or a year+ in advance. Giving them 30 days notice is telling them you don’t want them to exist in the first place under the guise of generosity.
You’re overlooking the fact that these apps don’t cost these people more than their time to maintain. They don’t have hosting costs. The costs are literally the devs time, that’s it.
Would they make less money going subscription only? Absolutely. Would they lose money? Absolutely not. Completely removing the app means they make even less money - $0 in fact.
Most of these apps already had subscriptions. It would be a config value or database change to update the price for new subscriptions, and one line of code to only allow users that have a subscription to use the app.
Also if your entire livelihood relies on making your entire business off the back of a free api to someone else’s business, you can’t complain. When this happens. Your business model is bad, and then cutting off your access is a known risk.
Go away, spez
Good one!