Reddit could have gotten ad revenue from third party apps by requiring them to display ads they deliver as part of the API, but never did so. Third Party Apps were never able to deliver Reddit’s ads. Most people are just using the official app anyway.
Don’t really see a way they could charge for Reddit without it being useless (as it is now), or detrimental to the experience (like a subscription for posting). They could have increased the amount of ads or preroll ads before opening posts. Worse user experience, but not any worse than what is happening anyway.
LLMs can just use web scraping to get data from Reddit without access to the API, which is even more costly to Reddit.
The only way their move makes sense to me is to push people into using the official app so that they can collect usage metrics and sell that data or use it to better position/sell ads.
The only way their move makes sense to me is to push people into using the official app so that they can collect usage metrics and sell that data or use it to better position/sell ads.