Last week, more than 8,000 subreddits went dark for 48 hours, in protest to Reddit’s change in the API fees for developers. Now, a week later, some of the most popular subreddits are still dark, and are tempted to never return.
Reddit’s CEO, Steve Huffman, sad that it would pass. And has also started to become a dictator, and looking to force moderators to open up their subreddits again, or replace them. Which is odd, since they are not employees and are not paid by Reddit.
Now, we’re seeing from third-parties like Similarweb, that Reddit’s daily traffic was impacted by this blackout. The day before June 12, when the blackout started, Similarweb tracked over 57 million daily visits across Reddit desktop and mobile. By the end of the first day of the protest, that number was below 55 million. And on the second day, it was closer to 53 million visits.
That’s about a 6.6-percent drop, compared to before the protest. As Huffman had said, it was a pretty minimal drop for Reddit. But it is a drop that was noticeable.
Users spent less time on Reddit during the protest
Now, Similarweb has also noticed that there was a much more dramatic decrease in the amount of time that Reddit users were spending on the site. Before the protest, users were spending on average, eight minutes and 31 seconds per session. That metric fell to seven minutes and 17 seconds. Which is the lowest it had been in the last three years.
Why the drop in time spent on Reddit? Well, it’s quite simple, with over 8,000 subreddits gone, and many of them being the biggest subreddits on the platform, there was less content to look at on Reddit. Many likely opened Reddit, and saw that most of their subreddits that they frequent were gone, and left the app or website.
This is going to affect Reddit. Now, will it affect them enough to change their stance on charging for the API? That’s yet to be seen.