this post was submitted on 01 Jul 2023
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Explain Like I'm Five

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Why are big platforms shutting down third-party Apps? Should an average user be worried? (lemmy.one)
submitted 2 years ago by [email protected] to c/explainlikeimfive
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With the recent Reddit stuff and YouTube stuff, I realized I've been using numerous third party apps or services. The question I have is why the decision and how such decisions would really benefit the company. As an random user, should I be worried about it or even go back to the official Apps just in case the third-party apps would be shut down in the future?

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Companies providing these platforms want to control the user experience (how you see the content) as they want to monetize you.

They are running ads, and only the first party app can control how and in which context ads are shown. This is a big deal for their customers that buy the ad space.

In addition, they want to track your usage of the platform, which is also only possible in the first party app. This helps them to better target the ads to you, which fetches a better price for the ad space.