Nowadays, there are many studies discussing the advantages of using APIs. But only a few examine what value it holds for an API provider. This study identifies cases from different industry fields, analyzes their APIs to explain why they are willing to provide APIs on the internet. First, the study identified ten enterprises as the target cases from as diverse industry fields as possible. Second, the study chose five representative APIs from each enterprise’s website, platform, and developer document. Third, this study applied business model framework to analyze fifty APIs, which revealed the association between the value provided by the API and the provider.
To clarify the differences and similarities among APIs easily, the discussion is based on the API type instead of the function. APIs are categorized into three types: data, service, and development. First, infrastructures of the APIs were examined. Second, the value position of the API was analyzed. Third, API end users were studied to speculate the customer. Finally, the study tried to answer the question of “what value does the API provider expect to get” to understand benefits received by API providers. In conclusion, APIs provide five values to the API providers: profit, extended market, enhanced content, user engagement and stimulate consumption. Enterprises which want to engage in the API economy can refer to this study to determine what functions they should encapsulate in the APIs and plan for the benefits.

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