Here’s a surprise – Reddit just announced that it’ll be making changes to its API access, which will see the platform eventually charge big for businesses that are looking to use Reddit data, under a new ‘Premium’ usage tier.
/r API
To be clear, Reddit has provided API access since 2016, with various platforms and providers using it as an access point to gather data from Reddit conversations. More recently, the data has also been used to power the generative AI models behind Google’s Bard and OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which Reddit now looks to address. Here’s what they said:
“When we first launched our Reddit Data API over seven years ago, the goal was to enable developers to build great products for users and mods, powered by Reddit, and that hasn’t changed. Since then, we’ve seen thousands of applications over the years, such as tools to make moderation easier, and utilities that help users stay up to date on their favorite topics. Our Data API also provides third parties (like academics, researchers, and social listening tools) with access to data, and as a platform with one of the largest corpus of human-to-human conversations online, spanning the past 18 years, we have an obligation to our communities to be stewards of this content.”
With generative AI generally set to make big bucks, Reddit wants its share of the spoils, which is why it’s now looking to charge these higher-end developers for expanded access to Reddit conversation data. That’s also the reason why Twitter recently updated its pricing for its own API access, as OpenAI and other platforms have been using Tweet information to power their models. Generative AI models have to learn human conversation and what people mean when they communicate, for which social platform data is key.
With both Reddit and Twitter providing that insight, it makes sense that they now also want their fair share. For a bit of context, OpenAI is now valued at around $29 billion, which is more than a 100% increase on its 2021 price. Chief Twit Elon Musk has his grievances on this front, but for Reddit, charging some developers for expanded access to conversation data is another potential revenue pathway. With the company also planning its IPO, it could be a valuable supplementary income stream, depending on how many take it up. To add, Reddit’s also rolling out some new tools for moderators to assist in managing their subreddit communities.
“In the coming months, you will see updates and improvements top
- Mod Log – to give context into a community member’s history within a subreddit, and display mod actions taken on a member, as well as on their posts and comments.
- Rule Management – to set expectations for their community members and visiting Redditors. With updates, moderators will be able to update community rules via native apps and rearrange the order in which they appear.
- Additional Mod Queues – to give moderators a view of filtered versions of their mod queue content, including a view that shows all removed content as well as reported and edited content. Currently, moderators can only view one main queue and can’t see removal reasons.”
The Wrap
Reddit has to keep its predominantly volunteer army of moderators happy, especially given that they could raise questions about the company bringing in more money, and not passing any of it on to them. As such, providing more moderator tools seems like a logical compromise, and these new tools will provide more ways for mods to manage their in-app communities.
Read more about Reddit’s API pricing update here.
Sources