Gapingvoid helps us explain API monetization

copyright (c) hugh macleod, www.gapingvoid.com

Yesterday I made a presentation to senior management at Best Buy about the API ecosystem and some of the great opportunities they will have with their recently announced, mashery-powered “remix” api.

I’ve long been a fan of Hugh MacLeod, the cartoonist behind gapingvoid, and am very fortunate to call Hugh a great friend.

So when I was looking for some images to help explain how the “remixed” world works, I borrowed liberally from Hugh’s trove of cartoons (which he makes freely available to anyone to use, with attribution). It occurred to me that given Hugh’s licensing terms (and his own business model of giving away free cartoons in order to make money as a cartoonist), he of all people understood the value of making content available to others.

So I asked Hugh to think about the API ecosystem and come up with a cartoon that could help explain the why companies would make content available as an open api. He was kind enough to take a break from finishing his book manuscript to draw the cartoon above. I love it – and anyone who sees me speak is likely to see this cartoon in my slides. Thanks, Hugh!

Mashery and Best Buy: The e-commerce API and Killer Christmas Lists

Back in the day when we were young little spuds, one of the highlights of the year was sitting down with a stubby pencil and a fresh clean sheet of paper to make out our Christmas list. Fast forward just a few short years and kids cranked open some sort of word processor to create their Christmas lists. Imagine now if you would for a moment, a world where kids use open content on the web to create their own Christmas list web site and link to all the specifics of every gift they’ve requested. Ladies and gentlemen, not only do Mashery and Best Buy give you an e-commerce API, we give you the Killer Christmas List.

Mashery is thrilled to announce that we are powering the infrastructure for yet another major firm’s API. Mashery infrastructure is supporting the release of the new Best Buy API, called Remix. Best Buy is an electronics retailer with annual revenues exceeding $40 billion.

The Mashery powered Best Buy Remix Developer Network provides access to any content on the Best Buy Web site, including:

· Product specifications
· Prices
· Photos
· User Reviews
· Any and all content from Bestbuy.com’s product catalog data

If you are wondering why this is important and what the real business value is for e-commerce, check out Brad Stone of The New York Times who writes about how open content is becoming very important to old media and old retail.

Another interesting take on the notion of open content is Joshua-Michele Ross of O’Reilly’s Radar who covered the open versus closed approach of some Internet e-commerce vendors and how the Mashery/Best Buy Remix approach is the correct one.

Shop.org and The Digital Retail API

We find ourselves livin la vida loca this week in Vegas! Exciting week here as we not only have the largest gathering of online retail vendors at the Shop.org Annual Summit; we also have all these odd virtualization people in town (just kidding).

Shop.org is focused on the challenges and opportunities most pressing to Digital Retail, including:

· Web 2.0 and its empowering effect on online shoppers
· Best practices in online marketing and merchandising
· Analytics and how to make your findings work for your business
· Customer focused website design
· Multichannel integration

These are the same opportunities we see in the online retail space. With more and more conversations about consumer products happening away from the retailers site, there is a need for online retailers to follow the model of the physical world and be everywhere. What do we mean by this? Whether it’s an affiliate partners site, a rating and reviews site, a niche blog, or the latest social networking site – conversations are happening where people gather to talk about their passion whether it’s shoes, fashion, electronics, or travel. We see this as a perfect opportunity for online retailers to syndicate their catalog content to new channels across the web via APIs.

Mashery has been developing a solution for retailers that enables establishment of a successful Affiliate Developer Program like that of Amazon, eBay or one of Mashery’s clients Shopping.com. Online retailers can create the kind of direct customer interaction that traditional affiliate programs, which use links and banner ads for example, can’t match. By using APIs to extend online presence, digital retailers can:

· Reach More Customers through a model of virtual densification
· Bring in More Revenue by driving more highly qualified consumers to their site(s)
· Broaden Marketshare by moving past traditional search advertising & SEO

In the weeks ahead we will share more insight to how this model works as we look forward to announcing new customers in the multichannel retail space! Keep watching.

Mashery Powers MTV Networks Content API

Remember that Steve Ballmer video where he danced around screaming “Developers!, Developers!, Developers!?” While forgiving the over-the-top nature of the delivery, there was no doubting the passion and the message behind the fireworks. Steve’s point was that Microsoft’s target, focus, and success hinged on developer buy-in of what Microsoft was selling. We agree wholeheartedly with that notion. Steve’s exclamation is still true today – developers are one of the keys to enterprise software traction, there is no doubt.

At Mashery, we believe the next big developer key that we will all be shouting is “Content!, Content!, Content!”

With a focus on content, Mashery is powering the infrastructure supporting the release of the new MTV Networks Content API. Through this API, MTVN is providing access to every music video in the MTV archive (plus all related metadata)! The API can be used to develop applications and mashups, including:

· Build a music video gallery of MTV, VH1, CMT or LOGO artists
· Create an application to send music video dedications to friends on Facebook, MySpace, Flux or any other social network
· Mine the MTV music video archive to create music applications
· Create a WordPress plug-in to dynamically pull music videos into blog posts

So, other than the super cool fact that the MTV archives are available and we can now start pulling Dire Straits videos into all of our applications, why is this important? We are fast approaching the day when all content is available online and this content is designed from its inception to be placed online. This next phase of web content will be driven by what we call the 3 A’s of massively available online content:

· Access – Big media companies like MTV Networks are driving content access vehicles. Easy access to this content facilitates incorporation (hello developers) into applications, mashups, and social media. Developers will provide and manage this access through APIs.
· Availability – Content must be highly available for efforts like the MTV Networks Content API to work as advertised. Down time or limited availability of content will not be tolerated. Initially, it makes sense that big media companies would make their content available; they are likely already operating at high availability levels (99.999% availability or above). As media companies (natural content providers) validate the content model, other industries will follow.
· Adaptability – Developers have been able to embed videos online for a long time. For the MTV Networks Content API, the big news is the adaptability of the content: Beyond just embedding videos, developers can now search, provide full metadata, control open content, and access to the entire MTV catalog. This adaptability of content is where the content providers, regardless of industry, can provide tools to make their content massively available.

Mashery is thrilled to be providing the infrastructure for the MTV Networks Content API, and we have more Content API excitement coming soon.