39 upvotes, 1 direct replies (showing 1)
View submission: An Update Regarding Reddit’s API
This is all well and good.
But you can see elsewhere in this thread the Apollo app dev was singled out as a “heavy API user” as well, despite users of that app being directed to sign in with their own oauth.
There is an obvious financial incentive. Force 3P apps with large user bases onto a subscription model to drive people to the free-with-ads experience. I fully expect the pricing model to be escalating tiered and predatory.
And as an additional incentive,
“Oops, this community is not available on 3rd party clients. To view the full range of content available on Reddit, download our official app.”
Comment by Bardfinn at 18/04/2023 at 19:40 UTC
4 upvotes, 2 direct replies
Alternative Hypothesis:
Reddit implements these changes, keeps the third party apps alive and accessing all the same content that official app users see (it’s all driven by oauth and json dictionaries as far as the server cares; the coding in the client doesn’t affect their viewing privileges)
AND
Reddit leverages Reddit Premium.
Right now, the business model for Reddit Premium is this:
Content Creators share content on Reddit
Users buy Reddit coins to give awards / have Reddit coins as part of Reddit Premium, and give awards to content.
Content creators then have an ad-free experience of Reddit.
If you have Reddit Premium, you can see https://www.reddit.com/subreddits/premium/
Which is a listing of all the subreddits which are Reddit Premium Exclusive.
And if you don’t have Premium, let me tell you: it is a ghost town.
There is no model and no incentive for people to make Premium Exclusive subreddits / communities.
That doesn’t have to stay that way.
If someone is an adult, and wants to see Premium NSFW content, they don’t look at Reddit for that content.
Reddit hosts teasers, and the paid content is hosted on *other platforms*
Other platforms which have revenue streams.
Reddit is hosting teaser content for content producers who get paid by other platforms, with an audience who pass through Reddit to give their cash to other platforms.
That doesn’t have to remain that state of affairs.
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Apollo and the other third party clients — who, as far as Reddit cares, are the people who have to meet App Store guidelines and local accessibility regulations and local GDPR blah blah blah — are doing Reddit’s heavy lifting for them, in getting an audience to their content. They have zero intention of choking them out. Unless they’re seeing that the third party is neutralising advert views.