Reddit is now dealing with the biggest issue plaguing the platform – users who are on average against the company management's decision to introduce ridiculous charges for using the company's API.
This is especially seen to plague third-party application developers, including Apollo Reddit and Sync, who on average had to shut down the development and use of their Reddit applications due to the estimated payment of around $20 million per year to use the API.
A few days ago we reported that more than 7000 Subreddit sites were locked as a sign of protest against this decision, which caused the developers of bots, functions and even applications to be closed because they could not pay the amount requested for the use of this API.
Reddit's Apollo founder Christian Selig says that with this latest charge, they have to pay Reddit $20 million a year to enable the app, and a few others to stay functional.
Reddit CEO Steve Huffman said that he will not change Reddit's decision to introduce this new fee, because in his opinion, these third-party app developers are profiting off the wind through the sale of third-party Reddit apps.
Huffman also said that the Reddit API was developed to develop functionality such as bots, new features and improvements to existing Reddit apps and websites. The use of this API by third parties is said to be a mistake by him, as other social media companies such as Twitter and Facebook are seen to have banned the development of third party applications.
In his opinion at the time, these developers should be allowed to develop third-party applications that add value to the developed platform. But maybe because Reddit felt they weren't getting enough revenue, they wanted to start charging for the use of this API.
For now, around 5000 Subreddit sites are still locked, which is seen to decrease compared to the more than 8000 Subreddits that were locked a few days ago. Huffman also said that these sites that are still locked will be opened and they just have to wait.