CEO of Reddit Goes on the Offensive and Blasts Apollo Developer in Fiery AMA

Reddit’s unpopular decision to revise the price of its API in a move that forces third-party apps out of business has taken a strange turn. In an AMA organized today By Reddit co-founder and CEO Steve Huffman, also known as u/spez on the internet forum site, the executive reiterated allegations against the developer behind the popular third-party app Apollo, which the company had previously used. accused of operating inefficiently and not being a good API user.

Despite the negative reaction from the community, which includes a site-wide protest from thousands of communities known as subreddits: Huffman’s AMA confirmed that the company has no plans to review its upcoming API changes. Furthermore, Huffman continued with his accusations against Apollo, calling the developer, Christian Selig, “behavior and communications” as “all over the place” and saying he couldn’t see Reddit working with the developer anymore.

Selig had been among the first to point out that The new Reddit API price fixing it would effectively make it impossible to continue operating the Apollo app. He explained that, under the new terms, it would cost him $20 million per year to do so, money that the application does not generate. This week, Selig announced the last day of the application it would be June 30, before the implementation of the new API price on July 1.

Other third-party apps are also being shut down, including Sync, RIF, and Reddplant, to name a few.

But Huffman apparently has an ax to grind with Selig in particular, first accusing the developer of extortion, according to Selig’s extensive post on the situation. between him and Reddit.

In keeping with Selig’s interpretation of the situation, he raised the question of why Reddit was choosing to change its API terms to shut down third-party apps rather than simply buy them, as the company did with Alien Blue (a former Reddit client who acquired in 2014). He said that if Apollo was costing Reddit $20 million per year, Reddit should write him a check to kill the app. The comment doesn’t sound like a serious question from his story. In fact, he clarified on the call, “…this is mostly a joke.”

If anything, it’s being presented as a means of trying to understand why the company would make a move that is sure to generate ill will among its community at large. (how do you have.)

However, a Reddit representative on a call with Selig apparently interpreted his comment as a “threat,” Selig said. But the call cleared up the misunderstanding and the contact apologized. Selig came with receipts, he Recorded the call (which is legal where you reside in Canada).

But in a later call with the moderators, Huffman referred to this conversation as Selig “threatening” Reddit.

That stance hasn’t been softened by Reddit, Huffman made clear today.

At the AMA, a user asked Huffman to clarify: “What were you thinking with your attempt to discredit Apollo by claiming that Christian threatened and blackmailed you?”

The response was surprising. Unlike most companies, which try to soften their blows behind corporate PR talk, Huffman responded quite clearly.

“Your ‘joke’ is the least of our problems,” the CEO wrote. “His behavior of him and communication of him with us has been all over the place: telling us one thing while he says something completely different outwardly; recording and leaking a private phone call, to the point where I don’t know how we could do business with him.”

It’s a strange turn of events for Apollo, whose user-friendly, iOS-first design saw it unveiled this week during Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference, ahead of Reddit’s API policy change that will now put it out of business.

Other prominent developers have come out in support of Selig in the aftermath of this debacle.

Sebastiaan de With, co-founder of Halide tweeted on Thursday called Selig “one of the nicest guys in our world of indie apps” and said Reddit management was lying, slandering and vilifying. Others quote-tweeted and agreed.

Unless Reddit’s board of directors decides to step in, Huffman doesn’t seem to care much about the consequences of these decisions. site-wide protest Or not.

At the AMA, he avoided a series of questions, politely or otherwise, from users upset about the API changes. These ranged from those questioning the model (why not a profit sharing model like Epic does with Unreal?) and asking about the tablet time frame to broader questions about Reddit’s shift to focus more on profit than community engagement. (“We will continue to be earnings driven until earnings come in,” CEO said answered. “Unlike some of the 3P applications, we are not profitable.”)

“Some apps, like Apollo, Reddit is Fun, and Sync have decided that this [API] the prices don’t work for their business and they will close before the prices go into effect,” Huffman explained. “For the other applications, we will keep talking. We recognize that the schedule we gave was adjusted; we are happy to associate with people who want to work with us.”

In it commentsHowever, the ReddPlanet developer (u/lupeski aka Tony Lupeski) said “this is a blatant lie”, noting that he had tried multiple times to contact Reddit regarding these changes and they had ignored him. . Other standalone app developer saying they had completed a Business API access request three times and received no response.

As for the rest of the AMA, there’s little else to report beyond what Reddit had already shared. The company was apparently unmoved by the community’s reaction to its API changes and has no intention of delaying or reconsidering. It will still hold its carve-out for a a handful of accessibility-focused apps, as indicated.

Huffman also clarified that while The NYT article positioned the API Price Changes as a way to limit access to their forums, which have become a training ground for large language models (LLMs), that’s not the only reason behind this move. The company is also spending “tens of millions of dollars” per year to support the ecosystem of third-party apps, and that needed to be controlled. (And it’s in “active discussion” with companies that use Reddit as training data for their AIs.)

The executive also noted that access to adult content will be limited via its data API starting July 5, 2023, as part of a broader effort to provide additional guardrails under a “tighter” regulatory environment, but explicit content was still allowed.

An overview of the AMA in a more readable format is available at r/Save3rdPartyApps, a community that has sprung up since the API changes were announced. The forum now has over 50,000 members.