淘宝网在2008年将向用户提供API接口

Lack of open API is one the the reason that you cannot find many interesting small innovative web apps in China. An open API from e-commerce sites may be more important and useful, since it is very possible that the web apps can be part of the ecosystem of the e-commerce sites, and generate revenues from e-commerce transaction via API.

In latest issue of CEO&CIO magazine(free registration required), Peng Lu, VP of R&D Center of Taobao, said that he plans to open Taobao%26rsquo;s platform in 2008, and encourage third parties to develop various applications, and finally establish an ecosystem around Taobao. However, we don%26rsquo;t know how open the platform can be, since Peng Lu thought the value of ecosystem is to increase the traffic of Taobao.

An ecosystem around Taobao will be helpful when competing with Baidu%26rsquo;s to-be-launched C2C service. Baidu is recruiting IM client engineers to develop its own IM tool, which is rumored to be release on March. People regard IM software as a must for a C2C platform in China which has extremely high penetration rate for IM service, so Baidu IM is its first step towards C2C service.

On the other hand, open API from big Internet companies in China, such as Taobao and Sohu will encourage more companies to follow this trend, and it will help to inspire more innovative small ideas. We are happy to see it happens.