The new API economy

A side effect of every world economic crisis is to invent new forms of economy and wealth creation. When everything looks grim, green buds will inevitably appear at the fringes of the system.

Jobs, as we have known them since the industrial revolution, are now under several threats: Low wage countries, of course, with the lever of global trade and technology.

But global trade and technology is indeed what will create huge opportunities in the next years, even in industrialized countries:
Imagine a small company that want to expand internationally. Today you have two options: create subsidaries, or close deals with local companies to distribute your products or services. None of them is adapted to modern economy that requires high speed and efficiency.

Here comes the API economy: What if we expose our business also through APIs? This will allow people all over the world to efficiently provide our services to their customers. For example, a person in Israel could provide our repair service in Hebrew, and a new business is born:
– we sell our service to people that we would never reach (albeit with a smaller margin)
– our affiliate in Israel builds a local customer base, and make extra money
– we keep things simple, in the end an “affiliate user” just needs to accept our terms of service and we provide him with tools

And what makes this kind of wealth creation possible is an API at the intersection of a company’s know how and an affiliate’s market reach.

In API economy takes off, we will see less traditional jobs and more people engaged in one or several API businesses. Implications on society and economy can be huge.