Reddit’s unpopular decision to revise its API pricing in a move that’s forcing third-party apps out of business has taken a weird turn. In an AMA hosted today by Reddit co-founder and CEO Steve Huffman, aka u/spez on the internet forum site, the exec doubled down on accusations against the developer behind the well-liked third-party […]
The problem with that is that it’s not a sustainable business model for the app developers because of the way that mobile apps work.
Traditionally, consumer apps released a version that you bought and that was it. Next year there’d be a new version and you’d buy it if it offered features you wanted and not otherwise. The developer has the motivation to keep coming up with new features to get the repeat purchase.
Mobile apps don’t have the ability to do that. There’s one version which is the latest version so you buy it once and get free updates for life. The only regular income that the developer can get with this model is from new buyers. There’s only so many buyers in the market for a Reddit app (for any app really) so it’s difficult to make a pay cheque with that model.
The solution is either to provide the app for free and to show ads or move to a subscription model for extra features.