Developers become more reliant on APIs

A new study from RapidAPI reveals that 68 percent of developers expect to increase their API usage in 2022.

The report, based on responses from over 2,200 individuals, shows 61.6 percent of developers are already relying on APIs more in 2021 than in 2020. In addition 75.5 percent say that participating in the API economy is a top priority for their organization now or in the near future.

"Every company is accelerating the transition to digital channels and investing in software development to enable that transition. At the same time, developers are becoming more scarce as we see a huge gap between job demand and supply, causing companies to turn to tools that make their developers more productive -- especially APIs," says Iddo Gino, CEO and founder of RapidAPI. "This year's study underscores the importance of creating an API strategy that delivers business value across all industries by enabling developers to build innovative software more rapidly."

Internal APIs are still the most common type that developers use (74.3 percent), however, more respondents (49.1 percent) report working on third party APIs. Partner-facing APIs have had the most significant increase this year (44.3 percent, up from 34.6 percent in 2020).

Among other findings, over 90 percent of developers report security and data privacy as a key consideration. Companies are also realizing the opportunity for new revenue streams, with growth in API monetization increasing to 40.6 percent from 35.4 percent in 2020.

There are concerns though, developers cite a lack of engineers or team members as the top challenge for 2022 (56.8 percent), followed by a lack of internal prioritization around digital transformation efforts (34.3 percent) and lack of API Development resources/DevTools (31.7 percent).

You can find out more on the RapidAPI site.

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