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- cross-posted to:
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cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/93361
APIs for content sites must be free (🔥 Score: 152+ in 2 hours)
Link: https://readhacker.news/s/5GSi2 Comments: https://readhacker.news/c/5GSi2
Is there a reasonable model for commercial sites to survive if their APIs are free?
The obvious answer is “charge a reasonable price”.
Many services like AccuWeather do that, including having a limited free tier for experimentation or niche applications.
The real problem though is that the value of the data isn’t just the cost of storing and making it available - in many cases its strategic. This is why e.g. the Google Maps API gives you pre-rendered map tiles and curated results, but you don’t get access to the raw data.