- Some Redditors said they would no longer use the site after the third-party app Apollo was shut down.
- Apol was shut down on Friday after Reddit began charging for access to its API service.
- Apollo founder Christian Selig said he was “heartbroken” that Apollo had come to an end.
The popular third-party Reddit app shut down on Friday, resulting in some of the social network’s users pledging to quit.
Some “Redditors” posted: Apollo subreddit They will abandon the network.
“I’m about to throw it away,” wrote one user. “I just finished wiping the entire history of the last 8 years using the power deletion suite.”
Apollo founder Christian Selig said the app will be shutting down on June 30 after the company announced a pricing policy that charges developers for access to its APIs.
Third-party apps do not display revenue-generating ads for Reddit. This is a problem for companies aiming to list on the stock market.
Citing data from analytics firm Mixpanel, Selig said the app, which allows readers to access the platform through a proprietary interface, had more than 1.5 million monthly users as of June.
“I think I have a lot of emotions,” Selig told an insider on Friday. “It’s heartbreaking to see an app I love making and so many people using and enjoying for years suddenly shut down. And how unfriendly Reddit is to its developers, moderators, and community. I’m really surprised at how dishonest I’ve been in the past few weeks overall. “
He said he was “incredibly fortunate” to have built and collaborated with the “amazing community” that helped shape the app, adding, “This is a once-in-a-lifetime trip and an honor and an honor for me. I wouldn’t have changed anything,” he said.
A Canadian developer previously said: Reddit’s compensation demands were unjustified Compare how much Apollo earns from paid subscriptions.
“I’m quitting mobile Reddit,” said one user. “If it’s not Christian to bring news and memes and (to be honest) porn, I don’t want it.”
Another said, “Goodbye, Goodby Reddit, not Apollo. I switched to Apollo after Alien Blue went away. I’ve tried Reddit’s official app and saying it doesn’t work is an understatement. New Instead of getting used to apps, I practiced getting used to apps that I couldn’t use.” Reddit. End of an era. “
Opponents of Reddit’s changes argue that the company was founded by an unpaid workforce of independent developers and doesn’t need to support Reddit financially.
Reddit’s main community chose to go dark to protest the API change, resulting in a significant drop in the amount of content on the service. Certain communities label themselves as mature and exclude themselves from advertising in order to reduce Reddit’s revenue.
Reddit did not immediately respond to an insider’s request for comment outside of normal business hours.
Are you a Reddit user or employee and have an insight you’d like to share? Contact Jyoti Man. jmann@insider.comor Thomas Maxwell tmaxwell@insider.comupon signal 540-955-7134 or Twitter DM (@tomaxwell)