API Business ROI

Numerous measurements exist for APIs. On the technical level, these metrics are fairly well understood. However, on the business level, there is a great deal of confusion over how the effectiveness of an API program can be accurately measured.

Layer 7’s March 14 webinar, ROI for APIs – which will feature input from TechCrunch and AT&T – should help to clear up some of this confusion. In particular, the webinar will focus on how hackthons can be used to gather valuable data for API ROI measurement.

How you measure your API ROI will depend on the purpose your APIs play in the greater business picture. Therefore, to provide a little primer for the webinar, I thought it would be helpful to give examples of a few API business models and how they might generate revenue.

• Per API Call
  Text messages sent via an API are billed at $0.01 per message
• Per API Payload
  Voice transcriptions via an API are billed at $0.01 per word
• Transactional Revenue
  An API call delivers a purchase
• Firehose API
  A monthly subscription provides unlimited API access
• Platform API
  An existing SaaS platform provides an API for partner integrations

To learn more, register for the webinar – ROI for APIs: Using Hackathons to Evaluate Your API Program featuring TechCrunch and AT&T.