Amazon goes shopping for developers | The Register
Amazon is targeting software developers and entrepreneurs with expanded web services and marketing support to attract more shoppers to its service.The online merchant plans to expand its existing library of seven web services in the "near future", the company said Tuesday. Amazon currently makes web services and Amazon APIs available for developers who use the code to integrate their own shopping sites with Amazon's payment and search infrastructure.
Amazon's goal is to establish its marketplace against online competitors with the support of an expanding ecosystem of developers, who would add shopping services that attract more customers.
No one has been more aggressive about slapping an API on their business than Amazon.com. It lets Amazon.com leverage the internal work they would have to do to maintain their core applications to extend their business via third parties into niches they haven't the time nor expertise to exploit. Very clever.
What's the old adage about operating systems and game consoles as platforms? They're only successful when ISVs develop applications for them? That's precisely what Amazon.com is doing: creating an independent software vendor-like community dedicated to developing to Amazon.com's ecommerce platform.
Only eBay (and perhaps Yahoo!) can say they're even remotely in this game. What does this mean for Wal-Mart, K-Mart, or any other established retailer? Hard to say, but as more retail is conducted online, the old guard may find themselves outflanked, thanks to Amazon.com's platform push.
