Reddit is stupid, and the whole situation is bad, but shouldn't the man behind the biggest app for the biggest forum in the world, in the lucrative ios ecosystem have made himself wealthy enough so that 250k is close to nothing?
Or am i misunderstanding how much money there is in this space?
If he isn't "10+ million"-wealthy that's extremely disappointing for all solo devs out there in my eyes.
I think you may be overestimating how much money there is in this space. People don't want to pay for things if they can avoid it. The biggest app for the biggest forum in the world apparently had 50k paying users. The author was complaining about the cost of icons, which to me suggests that he is not terribly wealthy.
But there's a lot about this story that I don't understand:
* How can the Apollo guy be perceived as "threatening" Reddit? He has no leverage.
* Why does he suggest that they buy his app for $10m, when they can just terminate his API access at a cost of $0 - "I have altered the deal; pray that I do not alter it any further"
> Why does he suggest that they buy his app for $10m, when they can just terminate his API access at a cost of $0
Because according to Reddit, the problem with Apollo is the opportunity cost of Reddit not being able to monetize its users.
Acquiring Apollo is user acquisition. Destroying the app does not necessarily mean that all those users will now start using Reddit's official app and become monetizable, they might just quit Reddit entirely. By acquiring Apollo Reddit could monetize those users through Apollo instead of the official Reddit app.
> By acquiring Apollo Reddit could monetize those users through Apollo instead of the official Reddit app.
After what Reddit did to Alien Blue I don't know how many Apollo users would be too keen on playing that game again. I personally have no confidence that a Reddit owned Apollo would retain what makes the current app great.
It has 50k users paying yearly. There's supposedly more users paying monthly, and yet more that got the "lifetime" deal. I'm part of the later category.
250k is just the cost of refund of subscriptions. There is further costs related to new business model and all the risk associated with a continued work relationship with a partner that just done you dirty. He can pay the refund, he understands it as not worth it and decided to not delay the inevitable and close shop. The thought is that it will not be profitable and any service offered after 30 days will only benefit reddit at his expense. It's the right call.
Or am i misunderstanding how much money there is in this space?
If he isn't "10+ million"-wealthy that's extremely disappointing for all solo devs out there in my eyes.