eBay hosted more than 150 technologists and developers at their headquarters in San Jose for eBay Connect developer events last week. The developer event included presentations on our APIs and the future of our marketplace. We also announced new additions and updates to our APIs, following a series of updates last fall of ten new APIs.
The event showcased how eBay is leveraging technology to make it easier for our developer ecosystem to create new eBay experiences. “You can now generate code and spend your valuable developer time creating innovative experiences on eBay,” said Gail Frederick, Senior Director of eBay’s Developer Ecosystem and Services.
In the last year, eBay has grown the number of registered developers that are part of our program to 362,000 registered as of Q1 2017, and we’ve continued to accelerate our buy and sell APIs. “Developers are our lifeblood,” Sanjeev Katariya, VP, Chief Architect, said. “A platform is only as successful as the number of applications that are built on top of it. That’s the core. We are a developer community.”
In the first quarter of 2017, external developers used our public sell APIs to create more than 800 million listings, driving more than $4.2 billion GMV globally. And in the fourth quarter of 2016 and the first quarter of 2017, external developers used our public buy APIs to generate $17.9 million of purchase volume in over 237,000 transactions.
eBay North America SVP Hal Lawton underscored the importance of developers and business APIs to enable distributed commerce. “We have a whole suite of APIs that allow for off-platform transactions. I encourage all of you to leverage those APIs and create fantastic experiences.” Hal also noted possible opportunities to expand our APIs based on seller demands, centered on great reach and velocity; smart, easy profitable selling; and strong partnerships.
Sunil Rajasekar, VP, Seller Services and Shipping, shifted the focus on our sell APIs and how they fit into the future of selling on our platforms. “We want to get to a point where sellers can focus on what they love, which is the product they want to sell. We take care of the rest: helping sellers figure out how to price it, market it, ship and restock their products. In the near future, this would be automatic.”
CTO Steve Fisher made a special appearance where he noted that he has seen many times that open APIs and practices can lead to powerful things. “You put the capabilities out there and people get excited, and what they create is unbelievable.”
At the end of the conference, three developers were recognized with Star Developer Awards: Homan Chou and Brian Nolan of Sellbrite for “Rapid Growth”; Kyle Schumacher of Wikibuy for “Early Adopter”; and Jake Becker of WatchCount.com for “Community.”
The week’s event was the first of seven global eBay Connect developer events this year that will take place across the US, Europe and Asia.