this post was submitted on 11 Jun 2023
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'Unlike some of the 3P [third-party] apps, we are not profitable,' Steve Huffman says in defending the move to charge for high-volume API access.

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Because we have an absurd monetary system.

Companies also need to "grow or die", the capital holders don't want to invest in a sustainable company that turns reliable profits - they want line curve up

Reddit probably took on loans and additional investments to push towards growth plans, like the website redesign or marketing. They might've bought fancy office space to look the part, and bought big booths at conventions.

And maybe it all even worked - but the pressure is always going to be "take more loans and try to grow even faster" - not "pay off the principal so your monthly payments go down". After all, if you double in size, paying off the loan would be trivial

Except the way our systems are set up, you have to keep growing until you can't - at that point, you pop and deflate into a shell of what you were

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

That, or the fact that they employ 700 people.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Sure, because YouTube was bought by Google - their investors already cashed out, so they no longer have the same pressure to grow at all costs