Apollo is shutting down

Reddit had introduced its intention to implement a charge for accessing its API earlier in 2023. The elevated prices, which is able to go into impact on June 19, have an effect on third-party apps constructed to assist individuals entry the Reddit platform.

Developed by Christian Selig, Apollo has emerged as arguably essentially the most broadly used app for accessing Reddit. However Selig introduced on Thursday that he has no option to shut down Apollo on June 30 due to the elevated bills related to API entry.

The problem is that Reddit has determined to cost $0.02 per person for accessing its service. Because of this, Apollo would face an estimated annual value of $20 million even earlier than producing any revenue from growing the app.

Selig, an impartial developer, wrote that the associated fee is past his monetary means and claims that Reddit assured him the brand new pricing could be truthful.

“Apollo’s worth could be roughly $2.50 monthly per person, with Reddit’s indicated value being roughly $0.12 per their very own numbers,” he mentioned. “A 20x improve doesn’t appear “based mostly in actuality” to me.”

He additional wrote that rising the Apollo subscription value is not a viable possibility given Reddit’s 30-day deadline. Roughly 50,000 individuals have a yearly subscription to Apollo, which suggests their worth is already locked in.

“So that you see, even when I improve the worth for brand spanking new subscribers, I nonetheless have these many customers to deal with,” Selig writes. “If I wait till their subscription expires, slowly month after month there can be much less of them.”

If he removes the Reddit API from Apollo, the app will lose the flexibility to retrieve Reddit content material. Because of this, many customers will probably ask for a refund on their annual app subscriptions.

Selig anticipates that he might be accountable for a considerable sum of $250,000 if that occurs. Because of this, it is extra reasonably priced for him to close down.