The API economy: It’s game time

APIs, or application programming interfaces, are software intermediaries that allow systems, applications and devices to talk to each other by sharing business capabilities and data—regardless of where the capabilities and data reside or what format they’re in.

As a result, these rearrangeable API software blocks can be used and reused to democratize innovation and generate new value for the broader organization. According to MuleSoft’s Connectivity Benchmark Report, 35 percent of today’s technology leaders generated more than a quarter of their organizations’ revenue as a direct result of APIs.

“With more than 21,300 public APIs on the web underpinning the apps we use every day, the new economy these APIs are driving is changing the way companies are built,” wrote MuleSoft’s founder Ross Mason in a recent Wall Street Journal CIO Journal column.

Ross continued, “Think of McDonald’s delivering food directly to doorsteps via Uber Eats without deploying its own delivery services, or Expedia aggregating flight information from various airlines in a single view—all possible because of APIs.”

When businesses build APIs with an outside-in strategy, external parties can consume the API products. This opens up new revenue streams and improves security for data exposed to partners and communities.

To learn more about the API economy and how you can plug in, read Ross’ full article here.