I'm guessing it's more about going public. Anyone who is using Apollo (or similar apps) isn't seeing ads and isn't giving Reddit lots of stuff they can track. F

I'm guessing it's more about going public. Anyone who is using Apollo (or similar apps) isn't seeing ads and isn't giving Reddit lots of stuff they can track. For a long time, Reddit had allowed much more user-friendly access than most places. Their API offered great access for free and their ads were trivial to block with ad blockers. If you look at Instagram or Facebook, you'll be getting tons of ads even if you have an adblocker because they've spent a lot of time getting around those. YouTube has been working hard to get around ad blocking and Google is even trying to limit adblocking in future Chrome releases. This has left Reddit with less revenue than other popular sites. If they're trying to go public, they're going to want to show revenue growth and show that they're able to get more money per user. You've called Apollo an "important partner", but are they a partner for Reddit or a rival? In terms of Reddit's revenue, they seem to be a rival. This is certainly terrible for users and I'm sure Reddit will face a decent amount of backlash over it. At the same time, I'm not really sure about categorizing Apollo as an important partner. Is Apollo kinda like YouTube Vanced? A better app for users that also means less revenue for the service? To an extent, who wants Reddit's ad-infested app when they could have Apollo? If you're Reddit and looking to have a good IPO and grow your revenue, Apollo and other apps are standing in the way of that. They're offering a better, ad-free experience of Reddit. Over time, more and more people would want to use ad-free apps like Apollo instead of the official Reddit app as more people realize they exist so it's not like the problem would be shrinking for Reddit. I think LLMs might be a convenient excuse, but I think the bigger issue is likely that they want to grow the revenue they're getting from their user base and they can't do that when people are using apps that get around their monetization. Reddit is following what most similar sites have done.