What's hot in APIs? Here are 8 big trends in open APIs today. This SXSW 2012 talk covers monetization trends, technology trends and what makes developers love an API (hint: it's not stale documentation). These are drawn from our data and trends we're seeing at ProgrammableWeb.

1. Open APIs
What’s HOT
What’s NOT
John
Musser,
ProgrammableWeb
@johnmusser
SXSW
2012

2. yea rs
7
Is
,000
AP tor ies
5
new s
s
3 ,000

3. HOT or NOT

4. A VC fund for your API
HOT or NOT

5. $250,000
$1,000,000
$1,000,000
$2,000,000

6. POST
/GetStock
HTTP/1.1
GET
hRp://example.org/stock/IBM
Host:
www.example.org
Content-­‐Type:
applicaHon/soap+xml
<?xml
version="1.0"?>
<soap:Envelope
xmlns:soap="hRp://www.w3.org/2001/12/soap-­‐
envelope"
soap:encodingStyle="hRp://www.w3.org/
2001/12/soap-­‐encoding">
<soap:Body
xmlns:m="hRp://www.example.org/
stock">
<m:GetStockPrice>
<m:StockName>IBM</m:StockName>
</m:GetStockPrice>
</soap:Body>
</soap:Envelope>
HOT or NOT

7. SOAP REST
POST
/GetStock
HTTP/1.1
GET
hRp://example.org/stock/IBM
Host:
www.example.org
Content-­‐Type:
applicaHon/soap+xml
<?xml
version="1.0"?>
<soap:Envelope
xmlns:soap="hRp://www.w3.org/2001/12/soap-­‐
envelope"
soap:encodingStyle="hRp://www.w3.org/
2001/12/soap-­‐encoding">
<soap:Body
xmlns:m="hRp://www.example.org/
stock">
<m:GetStockPrice>
<m:StockName>IBM</m:StockName>
</m:GetStockPrice>
</soap:Body>
</soap:Envelope>
HOT or NOT

8. API protocols and styles
Based on directory of 4,000 web APIs listed at ProgrammableWeb, December 2011

9. {
<?xml
version="1.0"?>
"symbol":
”IBM",
<soap:Envelope
"price":
94.72,
xmlns:soap="hRp://www.w3.org/2001/12/soap-­‐
envelope"
}
soap:encodingStyle="hRp://www.w3.org/
2001/12/soap-­‐encoding">
<soap:Body
xmlns:m="hRp://www.example.org/
stock">
<m:GetStockPriceResponse>
<m:Price>34.5</m:Price>
</m:GetStockPriceResponse>
</soap:Body>
</soap:Envelope>
HOT or NOT

10. JSON XML
{
<?xml
version="1.0"?>
"symbol":
”IBM",
<soap:Envelope
"price":
94.72,
xmlns:soap="hRp://www.w3.org/2001/12/soap-­‐
envelope"
}
soap:encodingStyle="hRp://www.w3.org/
2001/12/soap-­‐encoding">
<soap:Body
xmlns:m="hRp://www.example.org/
stock">
<m:GetStockPriceResponse>
<m:Price>34.5</m:Price>
</m:GetStockPriceResponse>
</soap:Body>
</soap:Envelope>
HOT or NOT

11. Percentage of APIs with JSON support
Based on directory of 4,000 web APIs listed at ProgrammableWeb, December 2011

12. 1,000,000 1,000,000,000
HOT or NOT

13. API Billionaires
1,000,000 1,000,000,000
HOT or NOT

14. API Billionaires
13 billion API calls / day (May 2011)
10 billion API calls / month (January 2011)
Over 260 billion objects stored in S3 (January 2011)
1.6 billion API-delivered stories / month (October 2010)
5 billion API calls / day (April 2010)
1.1 billion API calls / day (April 2011)
10 billion API calls / month (December 2011)
12 billion API calls / month (May 2011)

15. HOT or NOT

16. Hackathons
HOT or NOT

17. Hackathons
# hackathons last 3 months:
Jan: 35 Feb: 57 Mar: 68
max prize in 2011 >= $100,000
data via @kinlane

18. HOT or NOT

19. OAuth HTTP Auth
HOT or NOT

20. 300+ OAuth APIs

21. HOT or NOT

22. Interactive Documentation
HOT or NOT

23. Select method
Enter params
Click button
See results
Go write code…

24. HOT or NOT

25. Invisible Mashups
Ooyala = EC2 + S3 + SQS
HOT or NOT

26. +
Operating system = invisible mashup

27. A VC fund for your API
REST
API billionaires
JSON
Hackathons
OAuth
Interactive documentation
Invisible mashups

28. Thank You
QuesHons,
ideas,
comments?
john@programmableweb.com
@johnmusser

29. Photo
credits
Hackers:
hRp://www.flickr.com/photos/hackny/5684846071/
Money:
hRp://www.flickr.com/photos/amagill/3366720659
Million
dollars:
hRp://www.flickr.com/photos/ari/3706865646/
Pennies:
hRp://www.flickr.com/photos/puuikibeach/6746802715/
Bored
conference:
hRp://www.flickr.com/photos/padorange/2580180117/