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Forgive me if I'm making a simplistic reading of this, but it seems the CEO has said that whilst apps and bots are making some good money, Reddit is losing mone

Forgive me if I'm making a simplistic reading of this, but it seems the CEO has said that whilst apps and bots are making some good money, Reddit is losing money. Assuming Reddit has already taken cost saving measures (with 2000 staff maybe not), then how can they continue as a business losing money? I wonder if a model would work where all monetization of api calls has to be done through Reddit and the API itself, and they do a 30% revenue share with the apps?

anonred 3y ago
> all monetization of api calls has to be done through Reddit and the API itself How does this work with IAP and ads? Or do you mean that only Reddit Premium users should have access to third party apps? Because that would be much more expensive than the $2.50/mo that people are riled up about with the new API pricing.
- justinhj 3y ago
  I would say that making money from sites content by putting it somewhere else with your own ads is simply not allowed. What I would allow is you to charge a subscription to use the api which goes to Reddit and you get some cut like 30%.
Monotoko 3y ago
Apps were always willing to pay money for their usage, but not the insane pricing Reddit put in front of them ($12k for 50 million calls)
- hcks 3y ago
  2.5$ per user per month doesn’t seem insane at all
  - cbsks 3y ago
    It does when it is enacted with one months notice.
asd88 3y ago
They can stop losing money by slashing their workforce and stopping working on features nobody wants (e.g. chat, an official mobile app, etc). The core site functionality has not changed in over a decade, there’s no need to try to be Instagram.
sahaj 3y ago
I think they are fixing this by making bots? I got more followers in the last 5 days than I've had in the last 15 years: https://i.imgur.com/hjeVvtZ.png https://i.imgur.com/hjeVvtZ.png Something is up for sure.
- pndy 3y ago
  Last week I had an attempt of contact via this new chat-thing from a completely empty new account
HaloTop 3y ago
>how can they continue as a business losing money? You can't. Imagine you started a website, you're losing money, and 3P devs are serving your data, ripping out your ads, profiting themselves, and then staging entire public campaigns against you ask them to contribute or get lost. If I had a small website and asked HN for advice in this regard, 100% of replies would be to boot the 3P dev. Nobody would say, "Dude, let him/her keep doing it! You're being greedy and stupid!"
rchaud 3y ago
> then how can they continue as a business losing money? The same way Spotify, Twitter, Snapchat and other loss-making companies do? Bring in new financing and new advertisers, fire staff.
- bibabaloo 3y ago
  None of those companies allow third party apps, do they?
  - cbsks 3y ago
    Spotify does. But only for Premium accounts. That would have been a good way to solve this problem, in my opinion.

anonred 3y ago

> all monetization of api calls has to be done through Reddit and the API itself How does this work with IAP and ads? Or do you mean that only Reddit Premium users should have access to third party apps? Because that would be much more expensive than the $2.50/mo that people are riled up about with the new API pricing.

justinhj 3y ago
I would say that making money from sites content by putting it somewhere else with your own ads is simply not allowed. What I would allow is you to charge a subscription to use the api which goes to Reddit and you get some cut like 30%.

Monotoko 3y ago

Apps were always willing to pay money for their usage, but not the insane pricing Reddit put in front of them ($12k for 50 million calls)

hcks 3y ago
2.5$ per user per month doesn’t seem insane at all
- cbsks 3y ago
  It does when it is enacted with one months notice.

asd88 3y ago

They can stop losing money by slashing their workforce and stopping working on features nobody wants (e.g. chat, an official mobile app, etc). The core site functionality has not changed in over a decade, there’s no need to try to be Instagram.

sahaj 3y ago

I think they are fixing this by making bots? I got more followers in the last 5 days than I've had in the last 15 years: https://i.imgur.com/hjeVvtZ.png https://i.imgur.com/hjeVvtZ.png Something is up for sure.

pndy 3y ago
Last week I had an attempt of contact via this new chat-thing from a completely empty new account

HaloTop 3y ago

>how can they continue as a business losing money? You can't. Imagine you started a website, you're losing money, and 3P devs are serving your data, ripping out your ads, profiting themselves, and then staging entire public campaigns against you ask them to contribute or get lost. If I had a small website and asked HN for advice in this regard, 100% of replies would be to boot the 3P dev. Nobody would say, "Dude, let him/her keep doing it! You're being greedy and stupid!"

rchaud 3y ago

> then how can they continue as a business losing money? The same way Spotify, Twitter, Snapchat and other loss-making companies do? Bring in new financing and new advertisers, fire staff.

bibabaloo 3y ago
None of those companies allow third party apps, do they?
- cbsks 3y ago
  Spotify does. But only for Premium accounts. That would have been a good way to solve this problem, in my opinion.