Reddit gets paid either through ad revenue displayed to non-paying visitors to the website, or through API calls for access to their dataset. Apps that enable user access via the API will need to pass along this charge to their users.
Apollo must become a paid-subscriptions-only app, as Reddit now charges for usage. This is fine. Apollo needs to constantly be updated to keep up with Reddit API changes over time anyways, so neither 'free' nor 'one-time purchase' are acceptable ways to provide a continuous living wage for keeping up with reddit API (and mobile OS) updates.
There's a third (paid) option, which is that Apollo sells the app to Brave or Firefox, where it's integrated into a paid "Reader Mode" subscription — because a team of developers will need recurring revenue for living wages in order to maintain the website rendering overlay and overcome Reddit's attempts to block or break it, and will need a team of lawyers to defend against the eventual lawsuit Reddit will bring against them (even if they'll lose due to the LinkedIn precedent from a few months ago — but, I am not their lawyer, this is not legal advice).
There are no good free outcomes that are not advertising-supported, and the API is incompatible with advertising, which is why so many people use it. I'm glad to see that Reddit has realized this, and I'm glad they are still offering the free ad-supported website rather than a paywall. I hope that Apollo is willing to charge me for their app, and isn't demoralized by their users complaining about this. We'll see.
I'm curious why you'd think that. If anything, an API access agreement allows Reddit to compel Apollo to meet advertising requirements.
And though it’s easier to price a subscription, those also tend to be more user-hostile and occasionally not that great for the developer either (just look at the recent Twitter client debacle, where for-profit enterprises were begging their users not to ask for a refund for prepaid services that could not be rendered). I can’t imagine anyone came away from that with a good taste in their mouth.
I don’t begrudge anyone the right to earn a living, but in my mind the vast majority of subscription models on the market don’t imo represent a very compelling value proposition.
Reddit did not choose to compel ad display in their agreement update. I expect this is because it conflicts with getting paid by search engines and AI training corporations.
Apollo will be charged $2.50 per user per month to access the Reddit API, for a total of $1.7 million dollars the first month the bill is due; so, Apollo has 0.68 million users.
If we estimate that 30% of Apollo users will still be using the app after a period of time, then:
If users average one year of usage, Apollo must charge a fixed purchase price at least $2.50 * 12 = $30 plus overhead, in order to stay afloat without a subscription.
If users average three years of usage, Apollo must charge $90.
I have been using Apollo for five years, so I would expect to see Apollo charge $150 under your pricing model.
I consider Apollo to be worth $150, but only because I’ve been using it for five years. Their app would not be viable in the marketplace if it charged up front for two or more years of API usage.
Finally, I’ve been using Reddit for fourteen years, so if I continue using Apollo past my fifth year, the developer will lose $30/year on me. So, the developer will need to implement a shell game scheme, where new signups are charged an extra overhead on their $30/year flat fee to cover the usage costs of the users who are beyond their fifth year, which means that prices will be adjusted upwards each year for new users.
Flat app pricing is not a viable pricing model for Reddit’s usage-based API billing of Apollo users, resembles a pyramid scheme when modeled to include long-term existing users, and drives annual price increases leading to a collapse in user signups and the death of Apollo.
If your math shows otherwise, in some way that demonstrates how an Apollo flat fee model can pay for usage-based billing for as many years as the app continues operating, please share your work.
$2.50/user/month for Apollo usage is considerably less than the $6/user/month charged by Reddit to users directly for an ad-free website experience.
Is $2.50/month an unreasonable price for an ad-free Reddit experience? If that’s how much Reddit is being paid for advertising per Reddit user, then how many Reddit users will voluntarily pay that to use ad-free third-party apps?
This is more likely to kill Reddit Premium, than to kill paid third-party apps. Apollo is a better experience than Reddit Premium, and at a theoretical $2.50/month versus the known $6/month, would save me $42/year over Reddit premium. Sign me up.