The future of Reddit is uncertain as the company gears up for a potential public offering, causing controversy among users and developers. In April, Reddit announced that it would be changing its API, affecting how third-party apps can use Reddit’s data and architecture. The changes would increase the cost of using its data to levels that third party app developers believe are untenable. The developers of two popular apps, Apollo and Reddit Is Fun, announced that they would shut down rather than pay the increased costs.
The move by Reddit has been compared to recent seismic shifts at other social media sites, including Twitter, which announced earlier this year that it would charge an exorbitant amount for API access, pricing out many third-party services and forcing them to shut down. Meanwhile, members of the Reddit community have been enraged by the changes, with moderators of many popular subreddits coordinating a two-day blackout of their subreddits to protest the move.
The finger-pointing blame game has begun, with Christian Selig, who developed the popular iOS Reddit app Apollo, decrying Reddit’s actions on the Apollo subreddit. Reddit CEO Steve Huffman (aka u/spez) commented about Selig in his AMA, saying, “I don’t know how we could do business with him.” The battle has become very messy, which, in a way, also feels very in character for Reddit.
However, Reddit’s management is looking to take the company public, and the pressure to spruce up the coffers of the free-to-use social media service is mounting. It remains to be seen how this will affect the Reddit community and the company’s future.
Meanwhile, Amazon is reportedly planning an ad-supported tier of its Prime subscription service, which could be cheaper than the current subscription. Netflix launched its own ad-supported tier last year, which has been successful, with nearly 5 million people on the ad-supported plan. It’s easy to see why Amazon might want to eke out a little bit of that same success.
In other news, LinkedIn is testing a tool for marketers to use generative AI text prompts to create copy for advertisements. Utilizing OpenAI GPT tech, the feature will let you use prompts to generate all manner of marketing lingo. The feature is only available in North America for now, but will likely soon expand further.
Finally, Apple showed off its mixed reality headset, the Vision Pro, which is a $3,500 pair of goggles with a battery pack dangling from it. Apple positioned the device as the next step in wearable tech, but it remains to be seen if it will be the future of face computing, and if anyone will actually want to wear the thing.
