• dhork@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    Also they had a revenue sharing agreement that Reddit terminated in 2016 after Spez became CEO again?

    That part is easy to understand, RIF licensed the Reddit name and logo and called itself “Reddit Is Fun”, then Reddit bought AlienBlue, made it their own app, and didn’t want to license the name to Reddit Is Fun anymore.

    • Lockely@pawb.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      Reddit bought AlienBlue, yes, but it didn’t turn it into their own app. Their app doesn’t even closely resemble AlienBlue. I still have no idea why they purchased it since they never used it.

      • laxe@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        1 year ago

        Maybe it was an acquihire, looking to hire a team capable of building a new Reddit app.

        • Stovetop@lemmy.ml
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          Little of column A, little of column B. I think they were hoping that offering the official Reddit app under the “pedigree” of the (at the time) most popular third party client would convince users to stick around even after seeing how shitty it was. Especially after Alien Blue did spend a little bit of time itself being “the official Reddit app”.

          It was ruined because they just had to insist that the official app match the design language and have all of the feature bloat of New Reddit, which is ultimately what made it such a a mess. They were looking to sell the idea of New Reddit through the app in addition to the site, and were probably afraid that the app continuing to provide the cleaner, better experience of Alien Blue would drive people away from New Reddit.