API marketplaces aggregate APIs and provide a place for application developers to upload, distribute, and monetize their APIs while also providing a space for consumers to discover and implement APIs for their own products. APIs enable developers to build components of an application that easily interact and interface with other applications. Likewise, they allow consumers to easily incorporate components from outside applications into their own application. For example, someone creating a travel booking app could consume the Google Maps API and incorporate it into their application. API marketplaces provide a venue for developers and consumers alike to share APIs. API marketplaces can be useful for businesses from both the consumer and developer side. For consumers, marketplaces make it easier to find and incorporate APIs into their application. By doing this, they are able to create a more powerful and user-friendly application. API developers, also called providers, use API marketplaces as a tool to increase the accessibility and universality of their application. By putting their API on a marketplace more people will be able to access it, thereby creating more visibility for their application. In addition, developers can monetize their API by selling its usage on the marketplace rather than giving it away for free. API marketplaces are used by development teams no matter whether they are API consumers or providers. Consumers will use API marketplaces to find APIs to use in the development of their own apps. Providers will use API marketplaces to offer their service in more flexible ways than their current infrastructure allows. API marketplaces make integrations between applications more convenient and efficient. They are used in conjunction with application development software like mobile development and rapid application development.
To qualify for inclusion in the API Marketplace category, a product must:
Be an open marketplace that allows consumers and developers to use APIs for any application
Provide monetization opportunities for developers
Provide tracking and analytics to measure usage
