Resource Base API Monetization vs. Experience Based API Monetization

I’m lost in API monetization land, evaluating the business models of common APIs, so you are just going to have to cope with it, until I get through this research. Honestly, I really don't care this much about making money off of APIs, it is just telling me a lot about the motivations behind many of the APIs I keep an eye on. This particular story is extracted from my research into the monetization strategies of multiple core business sectors in the API space, and one of my regular conversations that I have, with an API provider around how they can settle in on a sensible monetization strategy.

In the same conversation around how these valuable resources even became APIs, we were immediately led to the topic of what we were going to charge for, and how we were going make money off these potentially resources. As I’m discussing resources based API design, I’m also having a resource based API monetization conversation—which tells me we are so lost in the infancy of all areas of API design, deployment, management, and ultimately monetization.

How these resources are going to be used? How will these API resources actually be put to use by end-users within web, mobile, and IoT applications? Seems like we should be considering the perspectives on how people will experience these APIs as we design the interfaces, let alone before we attach prices to them. If we don’t know ho they will be used, how will we ever know what someone will pay for them?

I just don't know the answer. I know that we have hard costs for crafting these API resources--the compute, storage, and bandwidth to serve them up. I do not know if anyone will even pay a dime for any of them, or even need them at all. Where do I focus? Do I concentrate on the resources that I have, and more about how to make them accessible, while also covering my overhead, and hopefully make some profit on top? Or do I focus how thinking about how they will be used, and the value they have with end-users? I can't decide on where I should focus: 1) resource based API monetization, or 2) experience based monetization. #help