I am learning about the AWS Marketplace through the lens of selling your API there, adding a new dimension to my API monetization and API plan research. I’ve invested a significant amount of energy to try and standardize what I learn from studying the pricing and plans for the API operations of the leading API providers. As I do this work I regularly hear from folks who like to tell me how I’ll never be able to standardize and normalize this, and that it is too big of a challenge to distill down. I agree that things seem too big to tame at the current moment, but with API pioneers like AWS, who have been doing this stuff for a while, you can begin to see the future of how this stuff will play itself out.
Amazon set into motion a significant portion of how we think about monetizing our API resources. The pay for what you use model has been popularized by Amazon, and continue to dominate conversations around how we generate revenue around our valuable digital assets. AWS has some of the most sophisticated pricing structure around their API services, as well as very mature pricing calculators, and have created markets around their resources (i.e. spot instances for compute). You can see these concepts playing out in the guidance they offer software developers in their AWS Marketplace Seller Guide, which helps sellers modify their SaaS products to sell them through AWS Marketplace using two models: 1) metering, or 2) contract. When you list or application in the AWS Marketplace you must choose between one of these models, but both involve thinking critically about your monetization strategy, which includes your hard costs, as well as where the value will lie with your customers–striking the balance necessary to operate a viable API business. https://goo.gl/VwnRN8 #DataIntegration #ML
