Everyone Has a Plan Until They Get Punched in the Face.

a famous quote from an American professional boxer Mohad Ali.

Multiple SAAS have recently shut down because of their dependent API provider decisions regarding API’s policy. In this article, I will mention some of the products and their journey.

1. Apollo for Reddit

Before looking into the Apollo, you want to know, what is Reddit?

What is Reddit?

Reddit is like a big website where people can talk about all kinds of things. Imagine it like a bunch of different rooms, and each room is about a different topic, like pets, video games, or cooking.

In these rooms, people can share pictures, and links, or just talk with each other. They can also say if they like or don’t like what someone shared. The more people like something, the more it goes to the top, so more people can see it.

It’s a bit like a big community where everyone can talk about what they’re interested in!

What is Apollo?

Apollo is a third-party iOS App client for Reddit, first of all, you might wonder “Why do people want to use Apollo instead of the Reddit iOS App?“. The Apollo App Store Page has mentioned “fast navigation with an incredibly powerful set of features.” so the Apollo app’s main concern is to provide a good user experience with an ads-free environment.

Since 2008, Reddit providing APIs free of charge. in recent years(till 2023 June) 3rd third-party Apps like Apollo have made billions(7 billion per month) of requests to Reddit so this is a huge loss from Reddit.

So, from the user’s point of view, they like to use Apps with good user experience in ads free environment, so clearly Apollo provides that, so some people instead of using Reddit’s official app started using the Apollo App.

Reddit’s stated reason for the API pricing change was to prevent tech companies from using their data for free to train AI. This data has been crucial for big AI models like GPT-4(OpenAI).

Anyhow, At 24 cents per 1,000 API requests, costs escalate quickly. For instance, applications like Apollo could generate over 7 billion requests monthly, resulting in a staggering $2 million expense. This becomes unfeasible for many third-party developers.

this is from Apollo’s official Page.

2. Zlappo a Twitter(X) growth tool. 

Social media X, formerly named Twitter. Provided their API free of charge. so multiple Apps and bots(a computer program or software application that automates tasks that would otherwise require human intervention or interaction.) using Twitter APIs.

What is Zlappo?

Zlappo is a Twitter growth tool offering a suite of tools for power users, including advanced analytics, viral tweet repository, thread previews, auto-retweets, auto-plugs, etc. it’s developed and run by Solo developer name called Jay

After Elon Musk purchased Twitter, he implemented a charge of $42,000 per month for the API, which proved to be unsustainable for small businesses like Zlappo. Recently, the founder of Zlappo shared his journey in a blog post on an indie hacker website. Here is an excerpt from his blog

3. WC Bulk Tool for WA Cloud API for WhatsApp

Hey👋 It’s my journey! ( it’s me, Prasath, the Author of this article )

WhatsApp is a messaging platform owned by Meta. In May 2022, it released the WhatsApp Cloud API to the public. Unlike Reddit and Twitter platforms mentioned above, WhatsApp’s API comes with a pricing plan. However, each month, every Cloud API user will receive 1000 free message requests. If the number of requests exceeds 1000, users will be required to pay for the additional ones

since it was released publicly, I studied this API document and created a YouTube Tutorial on my YouTube channel called Programming Make Sense as playlist , because of this I got a good understanding of the WhatsApp Cloud API.

Initially, there was no player in the market to use WhatsApp Cloud API to send bulk messages, so I used this opportunity and created an Android Application to send bulk messages with the required Analytics features. you can see the Playstore page below.

after the launch, it’s going well, but Meta has changed their policy about Cloud API Account verification, it’s a headache for Cloud API users because getting approval is very difficult on the platform.

So, only Approved users can use my Application to send Bulk messages, you can see my Premium Users’ Subscribers list,

you can see in the above image, there are a lot of orders have been canceled.

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So, if you have an idea to build a SAAS on top of another company’s APIs, you need to understand how long it will last and what your Plan B is. If you’re targeting a short-term endeavor to earn some money, then that’s fine. Therefore, think wisely before developing the product.

Thanks

Prasath S