SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(Marketwire - December 8, 2010) - Mashery, the leading provider of API (Application Programming Interface) management and strategic services, announced today powerful new analytics capabilities that provide organizations with the visibility they need to directly tie API activity to business value. With this offering, organizations will be able to expand their business analytics capabilities to marketing and communications channels, driving new business opportunities and revenue.
APIs are the means by which companies allow the core backend services that power their websites to be built into mobile applications and integrated into applications and platforms provided by their partners and customers. Because APIs are an increasingly important business driver for many organizations, a lack of visibility into API activity as well as the inability to measure their ultimate business value creates a "black hole" in organizations' efforts to optimize these new channels. As businesses expand their presence from the web onto new devices, they need powerful analytics tools that cover a more diverse array of platforms. As content can now be found across literally hundreds of types of devices, the new Mashery solution is able to measure agnostically across mobile and other connected devices, helping organizations put a value on their API initiatives without having to separately measure specific platforms.
"Organizations are seeing a seismic shift in the number of customers that come through social media sites and mobile applications compared to standard websites and traditional marketing channels," said Oren Michels, CEO of Mashery. "The problem is that there are few analytics tools that expand beyond the web and allow organizations to measure business value associated with this dramatic shift. With this release Mashery is arming the most innovative and forward-thinking companies with the tools they need to accurately measure the business value of these new marketing and communications channels. There's a paradox out there -- the more innovative and the more types of devices and digital channels a company uses, the less insight a company has into how these new business avenues are faring. We are now able to solve this problem by allowing companies to both accurately measure as well as optimize the resources they've put into API development and management."
Mashery's new analytics capabilities will have significant impact on the evolution of APIs as a credible marketing channel and business development opportunity. According to Gartner, "by 2015, companies will generate half of their web sales from social media and mobile applications." At the same time, Gartner predicts that "by 2012, 80 percent of businesses will support a workforce using tablets."1 Since APIs serve as the building blocks for powering mobile and Web applications, this momentum highlights that APIs have become more mainstream, evolving from a marketing experiment several years ago to a credible channel for growth today.
"As APIs are one of the key building blocks for applications across all mobile devices and operating systems, companies should look for solutions which measure the business value of API adoption," said Maribel Lopez, principal & founder, Market Strategies at Lopez Research. "Analytics solutions that identify where business value is derived from can be priceless -- especially if you are able to measure value beyond simply logging traffic levels."
Shifting Viewership Needs Better Analytics Tools
The effort to optimize these new business channels has made a significant impact on Active.com, a fitness site where people search and register for sports activities and events. Once solely dependent on web traffic to drive revenue opportunities, Active.com now receives a sizable portion of its viewership from its online newsletters, social media presence and mobile applications on the iPhone and Android platforms. Mashery's new API analytics capabilities allow the company to derive as much market research and business analysis from these new channels as their robust web analytics efforts.
"It is absolutely imperative that we are able to capture and better understand business data tied to our new marketing channels," said Jeremy Thomas, director of product development, Active.com. "Mashery's new offerings allow us to connect the dots by tracking value from the multitude of channels and devices where customer interaction originates -- and analyze this information through to an actual registration. That's revenue generated through our API program of which we were previously unable to measure, track and analyze in a meaningful way."
Mashery Putting a Business Value on API Management
As companies continue to conduct more of their commerce online, it's important that they look beyond their websites and go directly to customers. APIs let them expand their presence to mobile devices like smart phones and tablets as well as social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook. Mashery helps organizations analyze and evaluate the value of their mobile and social media presence.
"Web analytics has evolved from logging server hits to tracking unique page views to eventually linking web traffic to specific business values," said Michels. "Mashery's latest release is the first step in bringing API analytics up to that level, so organizations can leverage this new marketing and communications channel to its fullest potential."
1 Gammage, Plummer et al. Gartner. "Gartner's Top Predictions for IT Organizations and Users, 2011 and Beyond: IT's Growing Transparency." November 2010.
About Mashery
Mashery's API management tools and strategic services help companies connect with customers and partners in a changing digital world by extending reach across devices, markets and the Web. Mashery leads the industry with a holistic approach for API initiatives -- from setting platform strategy and measuring business objectives to the heavy lifting of providing and managing infrastructure to facilitating relationships with our 50,000-strong network of Web and mobile application developers. Having worked with over 100 leading brands to power more than 10,000 apps, Mashery's knowledge, experience and proven strategies enable companies to focus on their core business while driving sales, building new revenue channels and realizing faster time-to-market for innovative applications. Mashery was founded in 2006 and has built an impressive list of clients that include Best Buy, Netflix, and The New York Times. For more information, visit www.mashery.com.
Contact Information:
Media Contact:
Aimee Eichelberger
(415) 963-4174 ext. 7
mashery (at) bordersgratehouse.com