1 upvotes, 1 direct replies (showing 1)
View submission: Lets talk about those API calls
Well actually a lot of large apis do actually charge by function cost. Look up YouTube's API for example.
But no, what I'm suggesting is that the heart of the issue is the third parties driving traffic away from Reddit official and them losing revenue to it. Calls to check if you have messages for example are going to happen regardless. Either if the user is on the official app or a third party. Thode calls don't actually have any revenue potential tied to them. Rate limit those calls reasonably and don't worry about them.
The calls that have the potential to serve ads etc are where revenue is lost so charge for those since that's the real root of the issue
Comment by nomdeplume at 06/06/2023 at 19:11 UTC
2 upvotes, 1 direct replies
There's also so much complexity in huge issues of how ads would be shown in other applications that you just can't do that. Youtube does this through a forced player experience, reddit doesn't have such a thing.
But even beyond that, none revenue generating api calls aren't 'free' to serve. It would only make sense if the revenue calls were actually covering the cost of the other api calls however there's other benefits to the network effect and products reddit wants to show you on platform.
Regardless reddit doesn't have such an api or developer platform, and for them to build it would also cost in terms of investment. For a user base that largely uses 3rd party apps to dodge ads because the option reddit presented was cheaper than paying for premium on the site and everyone is mad. So does reddit bleed money because they don't have such a platform and double down invest in such a platform to make 3rd parties financially viable 20 years from now? or do you cut losses today and restrict them with a simple api fee?