The developer of the popular iOS Reddit app Apollo, Christian Selig, has announced that he will be shutting down the app on June 30. The reason is that, according to Selig, the upcoming price hikes to access Reddit's APIs would cost him $20 million a year to keep Apollo going.
In a long message posted, ironically, on Reddit, Selig goes into a ton of detail about this decision, including denying accusations that he threatened to "blackmail" Reddit. He does offer a $10 a year Apollo Pro subscription which he says has 50,000 subscribers. He stated that some people felt he could raise the price of that subscription but he says that would not be enough:
Even if I added 12,000 new subscribers at $5/month (an enormous feat given the short notice), after Apple's fees that would just be enough to break even. Going from a free API for 8 years to suddenly incurring massive costs is not something I can feasibly make work with only 30 days. That's a lot of users to migrate, plans to create, things to test, and to get through app review, and it's just not economically feasible. It's much cheaper for me to simply shut down.
Selig does say that he will be fine financially as he recently launched a second app called Pixel Pals which he says is bringing in revenue.
The increase in Reddit's API prices has already caused some popular subreddits to organize a protest. Many of them plan to go "dark" for 48 hours starting on Monday, June 12. That means regular users will be able to access those forums, but others will not be able to read them.
While Reddit apparently plans to stick with its price hikes for most developers, it did announce earlier this week it will allow some developers of non-commercial accessibility apps to access its APIs for free.
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