from Hacker News

Ask HN: Can you create a Reddit competitor by acquiring Apollo app?

by playeren on 6/10/23, 12:42 PM with 3 comments

According to an article in Techcrunch [1], the developer stated his app has over 900K daily active users. Isn't getting this critical mass of active _mainstream_ users the main hurdle none of the "Reddit-likes" are able to overcome?

Building a backend that can handle comparable amounts of traffic to Reddit is of course non-trivial - but definitely solvable with investment and the right team. Whereas getting a critical mass of mainstream users seems like a much harder nut to crack.

The dev has stated that he has no interest in pursuing this route himself, but it seems like a lot of value being dropped on the floor by letting all those users disperse to other places.

What are your thoughts on this HN?

[1] https://techcrunch.com/2023/05/31/popular-reddit-app-apollo-may-go-out-of-business-over-reddits-new-unaffordable-api-pricing/

  • by smoldesu on 6/10/23, 1:15 PM

    I think a proper reddit competitor will go the Mastodon/Pleroma route. The "value being dropped on the floor" isn't worth much in the first place if Reddit failed to monetize them - so why subjugate them in the first place? These people just want a dependable platform they control, and a federation/shared identity solution seems like the shortest path there.

    There are indeed people investing and trying to find the right team (see: Meta[0]), but I think the best route is to let these users find a new platform. Forcing your idea of community on a group of people who like you for your interface design might not work as well as you think.

    [0] https://twitter.com/aakashg0/status/1659938015576473600