Hi Everyone. This is Take Off. We're like a hidden Easter egg in your favorite video game - surprising, delightful, and adding an extra layer of fun to your tech news consumption.

Here's what we're serving up today:

• Reddit’s Civil War 🪖💣

• Netflix’s Strictness Paying Off 🎬

• Asteroids ☄️

Reddit’s Civil War 🪖💣

There’s a Civil War happening right now! Where, you ask?

We're about to jump right into the ongoing chaos at everyone's beloved (and occasionally, not-so-beloved) internet forum, Reddit.

You know, the place you go when you need to feel both enlightened and baffled within the span of 10 minutes.

What’s the Deal?

So here's the dealio: Reddit has decided to crank up the cost of its API access, akin to that unexpected moment when your favorite coffee shop suddenly triples the price of your daily latte.

• This change is like a wrecking ball to many third-party apps such as Apollo and Reddit is Fun (Not fun anymore, we guess).

• The price hike would supposedly cost Apollo a whopping $20 million per year, something that’s not exactly pocket change for an indie hacker.

• The API pricing change caused a tremendous uproar in the Reddit community, so much that major subreddits are planning to go ‘dark’ in protest. (link)

Overall, it looks like this digital blackout might encompass over 1.31 billion users.

Why Reddit, Why?

There are a couple of reasons for Reddit’s sudden pricy behavior.

• OpenAI recently revealed that Reddit's data trove was one of the data sources that was used to train the AI wonder-kid: ChatGPT.

• Reddit doesn’t want to be an all-you-can-eat buffet for these AI developers and wants the companies to cough up some dough for access to its data.

Also, Reddit has been dreaming up of ringing the NYSE’s bell as it’s eyeing for an IPO. Things however are not going exactly smooth.

• Reddit had filed confidential IPO paperwork at the start of 2022, hoping to list at a valuation of $15 billion but as we all know, the 2022 economy wasn't exactly smooth for tech companies.

• Just recently, Fidelity, which pumped $700 million in Reddit at a valuation of $10 billion slashed the worth of their stack by a staggering 41%.

It’s pretty clear that Reddit now wants to make more of that sweet cash, but can it emerge victorious in the Civil War?

Netflix’s Strictness Paying Off 🎬

Ladies, gents, and binge-watchers, grab your popcorn, cozy up on your sofa, and make sure you've got your Netflix password handy because we've got some news that'll make you spill that buttery goodness!

Netflix has officially become the "Strict Mom" of the streaming world, cracking down on password sharing like a parent who just discovered their kids raided the cookie jar.

It's like we've time traveled back to 2013, folks. Ah, the good old days of having to remember our own passwords.

And it seems that Netflix's new tough-love approach has been successful.

• According to Antenna, the Streaming Stasi notched up nearly 100,000 daily sign-ups on May 26 and May 27, right after the crackdown announcement.

• That's a massive 102% jump from their prior 60-day average, even surpassing the signup surge during the initial pandemic lockdowns.

• Sure, there were more cancelations, but as the good folks at Netflix had anticipated, it was more of a blip than a disaster. The subscriber gain was much higher, up 25.6% in contrast to the pre-strict-mom period.

NASDAQ:NFLX hit a 52-week high last Friday, up more than 40% year-to-date. It looks like their "my house, my rules" strategy might be just the golden ticket they needed.

So, folks, it seems like the free ride might be over. Time to call up your ex who’s been mooching off your account and break the news. Or...is it the other way around?

☄️ Asteroids ☄️

Twitter is refusing to pay its Google Cloud bills. This could mess with their spam fighting and account protection abilities. 💰🪓

Tesla fuels an EV charging standards war. Ford and GM are adopting Tesla's EV charging tech for their future cars from 2025 🚗⚡

Microsoft is bringing voice mode to Bing Chat on desktop! It's set to replace Cortana, with more languages coming soon. 🎉🚀

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