API
Posted at 01 Jan 2011
Jiepang just opened its API last week on its first developer meet-up event. Since its first debut on the market, Jiepang is better known for its user experience and marketing than its backend technologies. People get to know Jiepang through big brands such as Starbucks or Nike and like the fashionable and easy-to-use look and feel, but not the HTML5 experiments or anything else in the back stage.
Due to my familiarity with the team, I know that the engineering minds behind the simple product are equally, if not more, brilliant. They have developed and maintained the API for internal use through the seven-month life of Jiepang, and based the product iteration process on top of the API backbone to enable its UI improvements and marketing operations. It is not just glossy badges and blinking banners, it’s that hardcore technical.
Yes, it is still a very young product, which nobody has any clues about its future. But I believe it’s on the right route to a bigger success, especially when you realize how the team has been able to put together the business and technical aspects of a mobile app through API. A great line-up of third-party apps have announced support to Jiepang and it’s still growing fast.
A best friend (also a great tech journalist) is recently planning a write-up for open platforms. I emailed him a few thoughts, basically about myself being an advocate of building API from day one and opening it up at the right pace. I think many APIs will be “semi-open” (i.e. opening to friendly people through a transparent review mechanism, like Apple’s App Store) due to the market competition in China. My own experience in some other projects have proven how powerful this is as a product & business strategy for some super early-stage ideas.
Fast rewinding to three or four years ago, when Twitter was still in its baby stage, it had a wide open API, well documented and unrestricted, frequently bringing down its fragile infrastructure. Nobody doubted the rightness of opening itself up in such an early stage. If the engineering is structured on top of a reasonable standard, the API should be able to serve the general public without limited extra efforts. One should not worry about whether developers will be interested in building apps using the API, but think about whether the open-up could enable new ideas to realize upon the API. If not, it’s a fake openness. Don’t bother at all.
I know there are many people concerning about the risk of opening up, Fine. There always are different ways to win. However, if there is an elegant winning strategy, with a defined position in a long-lasting eco-system, I’d take it.