The APIconomy growth in the retailer space: what about Europe and LatAm?

Yesterday I came across this article of a florist company offering an API to allow developers to ingest in their apps its flowers offer. They have a simple incentive for the usage of the API: they pay a 22% commission on flowers sales. Simple, straight forward and bloody brilliant.

We are already familiar with big consumer brands in the US taking this step forward. Tesco, Best Buy or Sears offering APIs with a different grade of maturity or commercial thinking but having something out there that others can use to create, out of the blue, a totally new way for those brands to engage with their customers. This recalls me more and more to the Business Darwin evolution shown by Sam Ramji in his Darwin's finches talk

But what about Europe and Latin America? Are there commercial brands already exposing APIs to generate a new "evolved" sales channel?

I'd love to have companies like Zara, El Corte Ingles, Harrods and others exposing APIs and enriching this new business space. I hope the Old Europe and the Promising LatAm react soon on this new space for competition/growth and this won't be, once again, a train that passes by without having us in.

If there are some examples out there, happy to hear about them

J

APIconomy and 2011 expectations

Year 2011 is starting and, probably, it's going to represent a very interesting year for software developers. All Industries are realizing or have already realized that third party development represents a cornerstone for future growth and even existence. Telco, consumer, media and entertainment Industries give signals of a shift in this direction that will, for sure, enrich the business possibilities of start-ups and ISVs all around the World. The signals I see are:

1. The API business is boosting already
Salesforce.com does 400 million transactions a day. 50% of its transactions are API call.
What else can I say? Mentioning again that Twitter got to have 80% of its traffic generated by third party applications seems poor behind Salesforce.com numbers. It's awesome and I expect that from other businesses soon.

2. The "APIconomy" is not only for Internet companies
The story of GoldCorp that starts WIKINOMICS, shows how mass collaboration can change the results of a company. But now it's about the APIs.
Embracing that, lots of companies are heading in this direction exposing their assets through APIs. Companies like ING, TESCO, SEARS and NYT have understood this is not only an opportunity but probably a neccesity to keep on competing and they are speeding up. I hope lots of others to follow soon.

3. The paranoia of control is stepping aside in the companies Innovation
As this Harvard Business School article says: "Innovation takes courage and the willingness to be out in front rather than following the herd".
And that's something we are seeing in companies that are bold enough to dare on assuming new technologies, new processes and new business propositions to leverage their assets. P&G, with that great figure showing that 50% of its sales are not coming from own developments, demonstrates different ways to face innovation became an advantage in the past: But, in the near future, it'll probably be a must.
Open Innovation is a reality, our companies cannot exist as isolated islands and require the support of third party innovation to ensure the future. Now it's about execution and APIs will play an important part on it.

4. Customers are eager to live new and richer experiences
Quoting TechCrunch, "Gartner’s estimates that the total app market was around $4 billion in 2010 and should grow to a whopping $27 billion by 2013". This shows a WOW growth and demonstrates customers are expecting new experiences and also the number of customers with access to those new services is growing rapidly. Smartphone sales growth and mobile internet penetration will spur new niche services that we cannot even imagine now. 

5. It's not only about Smartphones
The "Internet of the things" is here. Smartphones are now the "Queen of the Party" but tablets are gaining importance quickly. In CES we'll see tens of new tablets, surely not all of them will get to the market, but the efforts and expectations in that arena are huge.
But consumer electronics will utilize these technologies in lots of our living experiences. Not only through Smartphones or tablets. Lots of other connected devices. Why not in a car, in your fridge or in whichever device you use? 

6. Yes, not only about Smartphones, but the Smartphone is the killer
There are only two things in History that from their invention, apart from clothing, have gone with men as a must have. The watch and the wallet... cannot live without them. Or should I say, couldn't live without them?
The watch is being killed by the Smartphone, despite the iPhone alarm bug. And the wallet is on the way. NFC is becoming a reality and mobile payments will probably speed up as it's a hot market and certain acquisitions can be expected in that space.
And what to say about mobile advertising? Some may say it's a hype created by analyst but, as far as I see it, the potenciality is huge as 80% of my personal digital life ocurs through my mobile handset. That market has to grow and if it's not in 2011, it'll be the next year.
As soon as those opportunities cristalyze, the companies behind will expose those capacitites to developers through APIs to grab traction faster and better... Let's see what's the business model behind.

Well, under my view, all this makes 2011 an interesting year to be in SW development. There's going to be new things showing up and that will probably be the catalyst for a new stream of creativity, services and business opportunities.

Enjoy 2011!

Turning code into cash: notes from my talk at BDigital Apps and the developer dilemma

On November 17th I attended BDigital Apps in Barcelona, an event aimed at industry, start ups and developers in the mobile apps space.

The event was really good. It was oversubscribed, with the audience exceeding capacity by far, to the extent that they had to use extra rooms with TVs outside the main auditorium. There were some ties, people from the Industry and media but the biggest share was of developers, start-ups, people eager to see and find new business opportunities, ways to commercialize their apps, monetize them or fund their developments. And there was one question at the end of the first panel that really raised my interest. One developer posed the question: “What is there for me? I have problems, fragmentation and people's salaries to pay and I don't see any proposals from you to help help my business.” And that's true. We, organizers, sponsors and speakers, should focus more in listening and understanding developer needs to try to help them as they are a source of growth for our society and country.

And that's exactly what I missed during the time I was at the event; I would have liked to have seen more relevant products for developers. I'm sure La Caixa and Tecnocom, have or are planning to have products that may be cool or at least useful for developers and people is eager to lay their hands on anything new. Would't it be nice to see La Caixa explaining how to embed their Caixa Tickets service in, for example, a music app to allow concert ticket purchase straight from an ad  shown while you listen to a song of your favourite band?  

Well, moving on to Telefonica's story, it was good to see a positive response from the audience to my presentation. I received lots of tweets on it and was mentioned several times in Twitter. 

Main comments, learning, thoughts from me are:

1. Open Telefonica/open telcos an oximoron?

Exposing APIs and allowing developers to sell to Telefonica's customers and utilize our billing represents a huge change of the paradigm. From the so used term "walled garden" to an Open Telefonica? That's why we are here!

This is the beginning and a trend in the Industry. We see a lot of value there for developers and in a few years that will be a reality.

2. People are surprised when we admit that working with telcos is difficult

Yes, definitely. And this isn’t just a problem with telcos. All big companies are difficult, slow, full of complex processes. And complexity kills. Ray Ozzie explains this situation well in his post: dawn of a new day.  Recognizing it is a sign of maturity and willingness to change. And there we are, using technology to avoid complexity. That should allow developers to interact with us in a frictionless way.

Now it's about execution: "release the APIs, listen, re-shape, new release, ..."

3. People are surprised when we mention that the fanboys effect is starting to disappear

If you see the recently published Vision Mobile Developer Economics research you might perceive that the drivers to chose a platform to develop are starting to be market share andmonetization opportunities. Technology is cool, yes granted, but developers are businesses and businesses need to pay salaries and that is turning developers to look at new opportunities to turn code into cash. It's natural to pass from a fan level to a pragmatic one.

But, of course the fanboy effect will last long in the consumer consciousness. The brands themselves will come and go, but the effect remains forever. 

4. There is always an open question about what operators can offer to developers

It's all about APIs, distribution channels, business models and customers, customers, customers... more to come soon.

After my talk was done with, we received more than 20 requests to become part of the Closed Beta [and contact me if you want to know more about this too]. We are starting soon and that shows us that we are not going in the bad direction. We'll try to proceed all them

Well, finally thanks a lot to the organizers, other sponsors and, of course, the developers. And to Andres Martinez who attended the panel discussion and Yashim Zavaleta for his support.

Looking forward to BDigital Apps 2011!!!