Apollo, a popular iOS app for Reddit browsing, will be discontinued on June 30th. Christian Selig, the app’s developer, announced the shutdown on Twitter, citing Reddit’s revised API fee.
In a Reddit post, Selig claimed that the suggested cost would force him to pay more than $20 million each year to keep the app operational. Given the short timescale and budget constraints, Selig thought it would be more practical to shut down the app.
On the evening of June 30th, Pacific Time, Selig announced that he will deactivate Apollo’s API key. The app will continue to work normally till then. Selig also expressed his intention to issue pro-rated refunds to customers over the next several weeks, reimbursing them for the remaining period of their memberships.
Selig disputed Reddit’s assertion regarding Apollo’s efficiency, claiming that the data was distorted and that Apollo only consumes a small percentage of Reddit’s API rate limits. To refute charges of blackmail, he published a portion of an audio recording of a discussion with a Reddit employee, albeit he admits making a joke about it. Selig felt that Reddit’s CEO had accused him of endangering the firm internally.
Several famous Reddit groups, including r/gaming, r/Music, r/Pics, and r/todayilearned, have announced intentions to go dark or restrict new posts on June 12th in protest of the changes to Reddit’s API fees.
The sources for this piece include an article in TheVerge.