This is something I can’t seem to figure out. Let’s just assume that 3rd party apps are the reason reddit is losing money. So, it would make sense that reddit wants to start charging for their API access. But why is the burden on the apps and not the users?
Google already copies every public web page they can find, as part of search indexing. They don’t need to use API queries; they can just scrape the published HTML just like they do for every other page on the web.
What does this mean then? Reddit’s true intention is to shut down the 3rd party apps?
Personally, I think their intention is to get revenue so they can IPO and get stinking rich.
They would like a sudden increase in revenue, so investors think that they’re capable of continuing to increase revenue.
One step that many tech companies use to get revenue in a pinch is to stop giving things away for free if they can charge for them.
The question remains whether they can charge for them. If not, it’s possible there’s another exit strategy; the current team have got to be tired.
Just to invent a dumb one: kicking out the NSFW and selling the site to Disney; let the Trumpies exit, then promote the site as chiefly for chit-chat about Marvel movies, cute animals, cool science facts, and mainstream politics & news.