The article analyzes the evolution of the API-first economy, contrasting the optimistic, open API era of the early 2010s (the 'first wave') with a predicted 'second wave' driven by more pragmatic, business-aligned API strategies. It uses historical examples from Heroku, Facebook, Twitter, and GitHub to illustrate the shift from idealism to sustainable models that balance openness with commercial viability.
Background
The API-first approach emerged in the early 2010s with companies like Heroku, GitHub, and Twitter building powerful public APIs that enabled third-party innovation and internal tooling, but many early models faced sustainability challenges.
- Source
- Lobsters
- Published
- Mar 28, 2026 at 09:27 PM
- Score
- 7.0 / 10