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> What i don’t understand is why they can’t outcompete these apps by providing a better app. The good apps are (a) free, and (b) don't show any ads. Pretty muc

> What i don’t understand is why they can’t outcompete these apps by providing a better app. The good apps are (a) free, and (b) don't show any ads. Pretty much by definition they can't compete with that and make money.

ako 3y ago
If they cant compete because the competition is freeloading on their APIs and community building efforts then it’s clear that they need to compensate the lost revenue by charging for the API usage. It seems Reddit has about 1.5b active monthly users, guess Reddit costs are about $0.3 per year per user. Would be fair to charge that for API usage. If the apps don’t like it, they’re free to create and host the community themselves, shouldn’t be too hard, as Reddit offers little value…
- foota 3y ago
  The price they want to charge is 100x that, iirc.
  - ako 3y ago
    They state that for a typical user they expect an API cost of about $1 per user per month. Seeing that narwhal has a $6 per user per month plan, expecting 1/6 to go to the largest cost component doesn’t seem unfair.
- bscphil 3y ago
  I think the argument you want to make is not about Reddit's costs (which are low), but rather that should be charging some fraction of their lost revenue per-user for API use, since API users don't see ads. (Or else require app developers to show Reddit's own ads.) The issue is presumably that Reddit isn't profitable, and free app users are a major source of lost revenue (in addition to being a fairly small cost due to API use).
  - ako 3y ago
    Reddit costs are not low, running the organization costs at least 400M per year. You might state that they’re doing many things that are not core to running a community backend, but you can’t separate the core business from the supporting activities. They would have never reached their current scale if they hadn’t invested in marketing and ads for revenue. And that would reduce the value of the backend.
maaanu 3y ago
a and b are basically the same point, since they both can be abstract to the point "make revenue". I used Apollo because it provides a much better user experience and it is not even close to Reddits own App.

ako 3y ago

If they cant compete because the competition is freeloading on their APIs and community building efforts then it’s clear that they need to compensate the lost revenue by charging for the API usage. It seems Reddit has about 1.5b active monthly users, guess Reddit costs are about $0.3 per year per user. Would be fair to charge that for API usage. If the apps don’t like it, they’re free to create and host the community themselves, shouldn’t be too hard, as Reddit offers little value…

foota 3y ago
The price they want to charge is 100x that, iirc.
- ako 3y ago
  They state that for a typical user they expect an API cost of about $1 per user per month. Seeing that narwhal has a $6 per user per month plan, expecting 1/6 to go to the largest cost component doesn’t seem unfair.
bscphil 3y ago
I think the argument you want to make is not about Reddit's costs (which are low), but rather that should be charging some fraction of their lost revenue per-user for API use, since API users don't see ads. (Or else require app developers to show Reddit's own ads.) The issue is presumably that Reddit isn't profitable, and free app users are a major source of lost revenue (in addition to being a fairly small cost due to API use).
- ako 3y ago
  Reddit costs are not low, running the organization costs at least 400M per year. You might state that they’re doing many things that are not core to running a community backend, but you can’t separate the core business from the supporting activities. They would have never reached their current scale if they hadn’t invested in marketing and ads for revenue. And that would reduce the value of the backend.

maaanu 3y ago

a and b are basically the same point, since they both can be abstract to the point "make revenue". I used Apollo because it provides a much better user experience and it is not even close to Reddits own App.