Whetting Developers APP-etites

David Butler is a Product Manager at OpenAPI

Imagine not being able to store playlists of the music you’ve streamed to play on the go (Spotify)? How about not being able to spontaneously join your BFF for dinner (thank you, Foursquare)?  And who dreamed one day we’d shop without cash only tapping our smart phones to pay for things (Google Wallet)?

We’ve become spoiled by the continuous burst of innovative new apps that make our smart phones, tablets and computers even more useful and entertaining. Never before have more tools been available to help developers quickly build exciting applications.  They want to create the next killer app, and we want to help spark those cool new apps that will make them money and engage consumers!

That’s why we’ve invested in MasterCard OpenAPI. For those not familiar with the term, open APIs, or Application Program Interfaces, have become a critical bridge enabling developers to safely connect devices to the web or a company’s infrastructure. The best open APIs are straightforward to use; they provide great value, help generate significant revenue and catapult their owners and users over the competition.

Having spent 45+ years building technology that drives global commerce, MasterCard wanted to jump into this invention mix and give the developer community controlled, secure access to our world-class services.  Through MasterCard’s OpenAPI, developers can leverage our technology in a host of areas — Payments, Locations, MoneySend and MATCH — to create the next “cool app.” They can also test their apps in a sandbox using an easy-to-obtain developer key.

If you’re a developer, check out the MasterCard Developer Zone. It has documentation, how-to tutorials, sample code and more. It has served as inspiration even to MasterCard’s closest competitors. Experiment with our payment services and tell us what you’d like to see added. You could be our next evangelist for a world beyond cash.  Check out the short video below and share your feedback with me on Twitter at @_davebutler!

For further details, visit our CTIA Digital Press Kit.