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I'd argue Facebook has been pretty successful with their API. It certainly sped up adoption thanks to integrated apps like Farmville. It seems to me that the a
by enjo 15y ago
I'd argue Facebook has been pretty successful with their API. It certainly sped up adoption thanks to integrated apps like Farmville.
It seems to me that the an API strategy can be very effective in making something already popular really take off. No one is going to build cool apps on top of your api unless you have users to actually leverage them. I'm always skeptical of models that depend completely on an API play.
- tlianza 15y agoFacebook is a great example of "APIs are important" but the Facebook API for apps is completely different than anything they'd use for their pages. Especially back in the old days, when apps lived in a proxied sandbox and all of the params were passed into them, this code could not have been useful to the regular Facebook-only experience. So, I don't think Facebook really counts as an example that supports the author's argument.
- socratic 15y agoCompletely agree. Facebook was already worth $750 million and had millions of users by the time they released their API. However, the API does seem (with 20/20 hindsight) like it was a brilliant move in terms of growth, engagement, and eventually monetization.