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API management company Apigee has released a new report which claims that companies adopting APIs increase their profits by 13.5 percent on average. “For a firm of 13,500 employees, our preferred specification implies API adoption increases yearly net income by more than $250,000,” the report said. “APIs vary in their business function, and we find that B2B, B2C, and internal API calls are heterogeneous in their association with outcomes. We also find evidence that having an open developer portal further enhances the gains from API adoption.”
“Other claimed benefits include better internal information diffusion and management; higher function and lower-cost data management and security; and the ability to serve as the foundation of a digital platform, by making it easier for outsiders to participate in and add value to the ecosystem,” said Marshall Van Alstyne, an MIT digital fellow involved in the research. “The key to all of these is that APIs don’t directly lead to the consequences; rather, that they make these impactful investments cheaper. Any firm writing their own code will likely find it useful, if not immediately necessary, to create an associated API.”
