History of APIs - Ebay

by Kin Lane on 01/26/2011

On November 20, 2000, eBay launched the eBay Application Program Interface (API) , along with the eBay Developers Program.

The eBay API was originally rolled out to only a select number of licensed eBay partners and developers.

As eBay stated:

"Our new API has tremendous potential to revolutionize the way people do business on eBay and increase the amount of business transacted on the site, by openly providing the tools that developers need to create applications based on eBay technology, we believe eBay will eventually be tightly woven into many existing sites as well as future e-commerce ventures."

The eBay API was a response to the growing number of applications that were already relying on its site either legitimately or illegitimately.

The API aimed to standardize how applications integrated with eBay, and make it easier for partners and developers to build a business around the eBay ecosystem.

eBay is considered the leading pioneer in the current era of web-based APIs and web services.