Real World API Business Models That Worked
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Transcript of Real World API Business Models That Worked
Real World API Business Models That Worked
Preliminary findings from a research study into API business models
@mgboydcom programmableweb.com
What is the secret sauce behind…
Fyndiq (Swedish e-commerce)?
API introduced
http://nordicapis.com/fyndiqs-private-partner-and-public-apis-drive-business/
WePay (platform payments API)?
https://siteanalytics.compete.com/wepay.com
revamped dev pages
TransportAPI (transport data)?
Developer numbers
Walgreens (photo printing service API)?
http://www.slideshare.net/apigee/getting-digital-ready-day1-ceo-keynote
+40% of photo printing revenue is from API channel
API Business Models Reviewed• Fyndiq
• WePay
• TransportAPI
• Walgreens Photo Printing
• Fitbit
• DHL
• Pebble
• Gengo
• Evernote
• SeatGeek
• Sears Product Details
• SchedJoules
• Contentful
• Indeed
Research Methodology1. Business Model Canvas Mapping
Research Methodology2. Plugged in to Launchd.io
Thanks Holger!
Research Methodology3. Identify business model typology
http://www.slideshare.net/jmusser/j-musser-apibizmodels2013
Research Methodology4. Desktop research: Calculate size of dev audience
• Active devs in Support Forum
• Tally of applications/devs mentioned in all blog posts
• Any marketplace listings of apps built with API
• Twitter, FaceBook, YouTube followers/views
• GitHub followers
Research Methodology5. Other indicators
• Current positions vacant for API developer team
• Developer feedback on “Time to Hello World”
• Any revenue data eg. App Annie stats
and…
• Whatever the API providers are willing to share (i.e. not much!)
Initial FindingsBeing confirmed with APIs studied and industry leaders
1. Developer numbers don’t need to be huge
2. Have a clear business model with revenue-sharing arrangements described
• Strong dev engagement culture more profitable
3. Some best practices are still on the to do list
Dev Numbers Don’t Need To Be Huge
Have a Clear Business Model/Rev-Share
• Developer Pays = Pay as You Go on API Calls
• Developer Gets Paid = Rev Share
• Developer Pays = Freemium
• Developer Pays = Transaction Fee
• “Free for now and we will see what happens”
Those with a Clear Rev Share Model Also Have…
• Early adopter policy: very early beta testing approach with partners
• Quicker to start splintering dev engagement between partners (commercial consumers) and third party devs (innovation/experimental cases)
• Showcase pages/Marketplace that increase dev revenue (qualified leads)
Best Practices On To Do List
• Developer Market Funnel Analytics: what resources/support do commercial devs use most?
• Discoverability low:
• Limited use of description languages
• Limited use of SEO or PPC
• Some signs of move towards naming all APIs as if for external consumption from the get-go (customer can understand intuitively)
What Next?
Stay Tuned!
• Confirming individual datasets with each of the API businesses analyzed
• Reviewing overall study with API industry stakeholders to confirm analysis/summary findings
• Ebook from ProgrammableWeb
• Interactive tool to help devs assess whether to consume an API based on the API provider business model and likelihood of revenue generation!
• Building up longitudinal study of progress for each API and adding more…
Thanks to…• Holger Reinhardt
• David Berlind
• Joe Rago
• Ronnie Mitra
• Sangeet Paul Choudary
• John Musser
• Emer Coleman
• Podio Team
• Chris Traganos
• Michael Skok
• Bruno Pedro
• Jack O’Hurley
• Manfred Bortenschlager
• Nicole Castillo
Want more?Follow Mark Boyd on ProgrammableWeb
@mgboydcom !!!!