Christian Selig Net Worth [Apollo App Founder]

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Net Worth:	$3 million
Profession/Career:	iOS Developer
YouTube Channel:	None
College:	Dalhousie University
Major/Degree:	Computer Science
Full Name:	Christian Selig
Place of Birth:	Nova Scotia, Canada
Birthday:	July 20, 1993
Height:	5’ 9” (est)

Frequently Associated With

Apollo
Reddit
Steve Huffman

Table of Contents

Who is Christian Selig?

Christian Selig is the developer and founder of the Apollo app. Apollo is a third-party client for the Reddit social media platform, designed specifically for iOS devices. It offers a more intuitive and feature-rich interface compared to the official Reddit app.

Christian Selig created Apollo with the goal of providing a seamless browsing experience for Reddit users on their iPhones. The app has gained popularity among Reddit enthusiasts and has received positive reviews for its user-friendly design and extensive customization options.

Christian Selig’s Net Worth

Christian Selig’s net worth is estimated to be around $3 million.

Christian Selig has worked as a developer since graduating in 2015. His positions include:

Software Developer Intern (DiscoveryGarden, Inc.)
Software Engineer (Bionym Inc.)
Enterprise Application Developer Intern (Apple, Inc.)
Director of Service Acceleration (Amazon Web Services)

However, his income largely comes from the Apollo app. He has been developing and running this app since 2017 but has been forced to shut it down in 2023 due to new Reddit policies regarding API pricing.

Via an interview with The Verge, Steve Huffman, CEO and co-founder of Reddit, has stated that developers like Christian were likely making at least seven figures through their app while incurring infrastructure fees for Reddit totaling at least $10 million.

The rationale behind this is that since pulling content from Reddit is relatively simple and free, there is very little to no overhead for the app to pay, all the while being able to charge for a subscription fee, in-app purchases, and slapping on ads served by a separate ad network that pays the app developer instead of Reddit.

Here are his in-app tip options for Apollo:

There’s no question his app is hugely successful with over 2.5 million downloads, but ultimately, only Steve Huffman and those at Reddit know how many users come from Apollo and initiate API requests. However, if the fees for Reddit indeed total $10 million for such apps, that is a significant amount of users, and Apollo the most successful out of the third-party apps may very well be a good portion of that cost.

He has also been on record saying, “Apollo made $5,087.23 yesterday. Yeah no joke. Just sent it to the local animal shelter.” Although not likely indicative of usual daily performance, that was also some time ago in 2018, so it is arguably likely that he did make close to that amount on a daily basis if not more in 2023, prior to the app shutdown.

Still, he had to start somewhere, so he wasn’t making seven figures from the start. It’s more than likely that the estimated $3 million he’s worth has largely come from the past couple of years as he’s had a chance to rack up paying users over time, potentially earning an income of around $1 per user on average.

Of note, he does have another app called Pixel Pals, which has at times exceeded his income from Apollo. Amazing considering this app is more of a passion side project for him. Fortunately, he still has this app as a significant source of income following the shut-down of the Apollo app.

Christian Selig’s Controversies

In an attempt to make users aware of the damage Reddit’s API price changes would cause developers and third-party apps, Christian Selig inadvertently became the face of the blackout protests in which subreddits would shut down for varying amounts of time.

In short, such API changes would have a significant impact with some potential consequences:

Increased Operating Costs: Third-party developers may need to pay more to use the API, which would increase their operational costs. This could potentially impact profitability if the costs can’t be passed on to users.

Changes in Business Model: To accommodate the higher costs, third-party app developers might need to adjust their business model. This could mean increasing the price of their app or service, introducing new in-app purchases, displaying ads, or adopting a subscription model if they haven’t done so already.

Limited Functionality: Developers might need to limit the usage of the expensive API to reduce costs. This could result in reduced functionality of the third-party app, impacting user experience.

App Closure: In extreme cases, if the API cost becomes too burdensome and there are no feasible alternatives, third-party developers might need to shut down the app altogether.

Ultimately, Christian has tried to come to some agreement with Reddit that could benefit both sides but came out unsuccessful. In the end, he had no choice but to shut down the app, along with two other Reddit app behemoths, Reddit Is Fun (RIF) and Sync.

Christian Selig’s Philanthropy

Christian has a soft spot for animals. He has donated to the SPCA Animal Shelter in Nova Scotia, once for $5,000, and another time for around $10,000+. He has also adopted two cats from there as well. Obligatory cat pic below:

Quotes by Christian Selig

“Judging by the amount of Apollo merch that’s sold in the last two weeks without me even mentioning it, maybe I should be in the t-shirt biz instead of apps.”

“No one is asking Reddit for the moon and the stars, just to listen to small changes. Even Twitch, which made horrendous moves this month, recognized that the community is what gives their company any value at all, and responded in some capacity to make their users feel heard.”

“It’s a real shame that Reddit seems to care this little about the community that rather than making an effort to talk to developers and moderators and apologize for how this was handled, they’d rather just wall themselves off and and dare users to keep going.”

“As the subreddit blackout begins, I wanted to say thank you from the bottom of my heart to the Reddit community and everyone standing up.”

“Apollo will close down on June 30th. Reddit’s recent decisions and actions have unfortunately made it impossible for Apollo to continue. Thank you so, so much for all the support over the years.”