$99/year is peanuts, that's less than 1 hour of developer time. All it does is prevent spammers from creating a shitload of free accounts.

You're not thinking of programmers from developing countries. It can be several days wage there.

> $99/year is peanuts, that's less than 1 hour of developer time

lol, I wish.

There's a difference between your salary, what you cost to the company, and how much they charge the customer for your time.

Well ... it might not be what a developer is paid, but it's the value a developer creates for a business (experience and training withstanding of course), if you catch my drift.

99 cents a year would stop spammers creating a ton of accounts too

Making it harder also heightens the bar so low-quality or malicious apps don't get in.