On July 19, Yelp notified some indie developers that they would need to switch to paid accounts due to heavy API usage, giving developers four days to make the change, a move reminiscent of recent communication blunders on Reddit and Twitter.
After the developer responded to the July 19 email, Yelp sent a deck with a pricing structure with a base price starting at $229 per month with a limit of 1,000 API calls per day.
But Yelp did not reveal other options, including a la carte packages that cost between $8 and $15 per 1,000 calls.
This lack of communication and transparency angered developers, some of whom shut down the service even after Yelp gave them 90 days to apologize.
what happened?
“Thank you for signing up and trying out the Yelp Fusion API. Your API usage is higher than many other Yelp Fusion developers and we'd love to learn more about how you're integrating the Fusion API into your platform,” the email, seen by TechCrunch, read.
“If we do not receive a response by 4pm EST on July 23, 2024, we will temporarily disable your API key until we receive a response with the requested information above.”
David Kopech, creator of Restaurants, a Mac app for finding local eateries, wrote in a blog post that Yelp initially offered him up to 25,000 API calls per day for free in 2014.
Other startups have also publicly expressed frustration with Yelp's handling of the situation.
Food Genie is celebrating the end of an era. Yelp has made their API paid, so we're offering it for free until they change it next week. Enjoy. https://t.co/ebmrN3Cc66
— Food Genie (@thefoodgenieapp) July 19, 2024
Food Genie developer Nick Perkins told TechCrunch he was surprised by Yelp's announcement, but the company did not respond to questions about the announcement. Perkins said the 99-cent app, which launched in 2017, only handles a few hundred calls a day.
User warning translation fusion api – almost no warning, they force developers to pay and give them only a week to decide (or turn off their API keys)
They seem to be struggling for a sustainable business model, but the AI trend will soon make them obsolete.
— Roj Niyogi (@niyogi) July 24, 2024
Roj Niyogi, co-founder of Enfits, a small startup built around a location-based rewards program, said his company uses Yelp's API for its location data. He said Yelp's surprise notice and threat to revoke access felt like “a virtual gunfight.”
Yelp's response
Yelp told TechCrunch that it moved to a paid pricing model in 2019 and has been gradually migrating developers onto its paid plans. It also noted that since the transition, many developers are still using the free version of its API.
“Yelp ended free, commercial, and unlimited use of the Yelp Fusion API in 2019 and has been in the process of transitioning developers to our paid programs over the past few years. Our developer community is important to Yelp and we have listened to their feedback about the time frame for transitioning from the free Yelp Fusion API to our paid programs,” a company spokesperson said in a statement.
The company apologized for its July announcement: “We apologize for the impact last week's accelerated transition caused to a small number of developers and have extended access to those users,” a company spokesperson told TechCrunch.
On Thursday, Yelp sent developers an email apologizing and extending the free usage period by 90 days: “Earlier this month, we sent an email regarding usage of the Yelp Fusion API, which stated that developers should contact us by July 23rd if they wanted to continue using Yelp data in their apps. We recognize that you may need more time, so starting today we are extending your free access for an additional 90 days. Access should begin immediately,” the email, viewed by TechCrunch, said.
“We apologize for any inconvenience or frustration caused by this abbreviated transition.”
Perkins told TechCrunch that Yelp has already removed Food Genie from the App Store because the company “poorly executed” its transition to a paid API, adding that it may look for a different API if it decides to reinstate the app.
Kopec also decided to abandon the project, saying the company never responded to his questions about the price discrepancy between the deck he was sent and the one on the website.
Every developer TechCrunch spoke to was upset about the four-day deadline and how the company handled the communication — they weren't necessarily upset about the move to a paid version of the API.
“Restaurants is a very low-revenue app and it wouldn't have made financial sense to continue it anyway, but again, I'm not opposed to charging for it. [version of API]”They simply sent us an inaccurate and threatening email with only four days notice,” Kopec said in an email, referring to Yelp's notice that it would revoke its API key.
As the number of AI models grows, companies with vast amounts of user-generated data are restricting third-party access. Last year, Twitter/X and Reddit changed their API terms to make it harder for third-party clients and tool makers to continue supporting their development.
These platforms alienated developers who had built popular tools and supported these social networks for years. As with Yelp, developers were frustrated with these platforms' lack of transparency, support, and pricing for small developers. Eventually, many developers moved on to building apps for new platforms.
Perhaps there’s a lesson in this for Yelp.