Web 2.x and Beyond – API
August 22nd, 2006 | by Kennith |
I must admit, I thought API would not make any difference to a website when I first think about it. I was totally wrong.
API works perfectly. It makes more traffic to a website. I thought API would not work because at first I thought if information is available without the need to access to the website, how can a website generate profit through, for example, ad?
Sites like amazon.com and ebay.com completely benefit from API. It might sounds weird when you hear about a company allow anyone to obain inventory information from their database. Company spends million of dollars to orgainze this kind of information. In amazon.com and ebay.com’s case, the more people uses their database, the more customers they can get. Their profit are not generated by ad showing in their website, rather, it is the service they provide. If they are able get you find the product through their catalog, the more likely you will purchase from them.
How about the case for facebook.com who recently provide API access? They are not selling anything. How do they generate profit? facebook.com type of site might need to rely on advertising to generate income, so they need a large group of user access to their site. The more application using their service, the more people will register with them. The more register users on their site, the more traffic they generate. They not only can boast about the number of users they have to advertisers, but also a higher chance to attract customers.
It used to be TV ads that made a lot of profit. When you think about it, it kinds of working the same way.