Reddit’s CEO Faced Intense Criticism Over Killing a Popular Third-Party App, Apollo. His Response Is What No Leader Should Ever DoThe company’s new API access fees are supposed to generate revenue. Instead, they’re alienating everyone. Inc.
While the journalist isn’t wrong about Reddit’s leadership, they yet again miss the real issue: It’s not about Reddit wanting to charge for their API. Look at the absurd cost, the ridiculously short timeframe, the refusals to negotiate with anyone, and lack of parity in their own app and moderator tools.
Their plan is clearly to kill off 3rd party apps and force everyone through their preferred channels so they can monetize it better. Anything else they say is just a lie to cover up that fact.
Yeah, journalists are really dropping the ball on communicating what I think is very simple: it’s fine for Reddit to charge [something] for their API, but these prices are totally unreasonable. Charging hundreds of thousands of dollars for something which costs pennies to provide is absurd and unethical in any context.
I wholly agree that it’s unethical to charge $thousands for a product that costs pennies to make. And yet, that appears to be the business model becoming more and more common, or at least more unapologetically blatant.
Healthcare, for example; insulin and epipens as the poster children. Gouging in post-pandemic grocery and consumer staples prices. The ballooning of C-suite compensation in service industries, while wages for those doing the service regress with inflation.
Journalists may be dropping the ball, but they have to keep their “engagement” numbers up, too. They may be dropping the ball because exploring ethical lapses may feel like headlining “water is wet!”