[dntrkv]

I am very hesitant to build anything on a free API like this nowadays, after seeing what happened to the Twitter API, and more recently, the Soundcloud API. I don't feel comfortable building an app using their API, and then having them shut you down for whatever reason they come up with.

[pluma]

And the Facebook API. And Google APIs. I think this is more about APIs than about specific vendors.

[xasos]

Isn't this a concern with most APIs? (Even paid ones can shut down, like Ordrx recently)

[dntrkv]

The problem I see with companies providing an API on top of their service is that their core business comes first, API second. So if someone were to use their API to build something that takes traffic from their core business, they will shut it down. Whereas a company whose sole business is providing an API won't run into that same problem.

And I can't blame the companies for making that decision either, why should the company serve your app if they're not even getting any traffic from it? Which would be a logical argument, except these companies open up their APIs and act like they are ok with it at first, and developers spend time building on top of them, creating even more useful services, making the original company even more popular, and then after those companies benefit from these developers, they shut them down.

This is similar to what happened in this case, which I think was a complete dick move by Soundcloud: https://medium.com/@padschneider/r-i-p-soundflake-79f7cf5f9d...

[bduerst]

Right, but that's the case with all APIs.

If your business model is entirely dependent on margins with other companies' APIs (free or paid), a price increase for those APIs would put you out of business anyways. The concern shouldn't be "What if they charge more for this API?", the concern should be "Why is my business so dependent on this company's APIs?"

[ffreire]

It seems to me like this gives the company free ideas and feedback they can then turn around and implement in their core business. Is this too simplistic, or is this simply not practiced enough?

[neuigkeiten]

What happened to the Soundcloud API?

[dntrkv]

You can read about it here: https://medium.com/@padschneider/r-i-p-soundflake-79f7cf5f9d...

I was super bummed when it happened because I use Soundcloud a lot and their app has some serious issues. I was considering building my own client, but then saw that these guys built a really nice alternative. Sadly it got shutdown shortly after.

[msie]

So frustrating! I want to make a blacklist of companies that do this sort of crap and then expose an API to it.