• xkforce@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    they want bots juicing their activity metrics

    Seems like it would have been easier to just not destroy third party apps given that their traffic numbers have apparently collapsed because of that.

    • hypnicjerk@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      yes it’s always easier to NOT fuck up a fully functional product and drive your userbase off a cliff, but that’s not good enough for the huge IPO that huffman is courting. he wants to be able to say “look, we’re monetizing 80% more MAUs than before and earning 45% more per person”.

      frankly i doubt they’ll be able to go public at all at this rate. if i were the Newhouses (reddit’s owners through Advance Publications) i would certainly be looking for someone to unload this hot potato onto.

      • Trainguyrom@reddthat.com
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        1 year ago

        The worst part to me was how they completely ignored the glaringly obvious route to monetization of “oh you like using third party apps? You now have to pay us a subscription fee to use those” because while that would’ve been unpopular they would’ve gotten some users to pay up for sure, and I don’t think it would’ve been as harsh of an exodus of power users that drive engagement

    • Fades@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      That’s literally how they got that piece of shit off the ground; lots and lots of fake engagement