It’s impossible to create a business on free API

Original author: Nat Thorkington
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Some people think that free web service programming interfaces are good by definition, like open source in the software industry. Like, using open source (alien APIs), the developer gets only a lot of pleasure and additional profit. Recently, Google and Amazon have clearly demonstrated the depth of this error, writes Nat Thorkington.

Here are some things that every developer who wants to use other people's APIs should be aware of.

* Free APIs are not a natural phenomenon that exists in nature by itself. Companies publish software interfaces, guided by their own selfish motives. If you used someone’s API, but at the same time did not bring benefits to this company, then you may well be denied access.

* If you built your own business on other people's APIs, you will have to fix the stability of the business in the future with the agreement. Such a contract usually costs money.

* If you find a way to get something from the site that was not originally intended for distribution, then you will have to fight for the right to use it if the owner of the API does not get direct benefits from this. [Obviously, this is a conclusion from a recent dispute between owners of Alexa statistics and an innovative startup that found a way to build new convenient diagrams based on these statistics, getting it through free APIs. After that, he was immediately denied access to the service. - approx. trans.] .

* Owners of the API will find it more convenient to independently implement some services and functions on top of the API than looking at your implementation. Therefore, you need to create something really difficult to copy, something more complicated than the usual interface settings or basic functions like search. You need to ensure that API owners cannot easily copy your development when they see its popularity.

* This is why free APIs are a very bad replacement for their own program code and data, and that's why they completely control your application.

* For these reasons, there is no such thing as free APIs if you want to create a business.

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