1. Open Innovation and New Markets - Public APIs have enabled firms to use internal as well as external ideas and find new market paths to grow.
2. Consume, Switch or Upgrade Seamlessly - APIs that are topping the market can be implemented easily and when there is a better API for the same functionality, switching to the new API is only a small effort. This drives both the API Consumer and Provider towards a continuous improvement of quality
3. Build on Partner Capabilities - Utilizing Partner's existing resources lowers risks and saves time to deliver, instead of building every functionality/requirement internally.
4. Increase Brand Presence - Organizations have expanded their brand presence by exposing data and services that are consumed by third party Applications/Mash-ups or Partner Applications, thus reaching a whole new set of audiences and markets.
5. Generate New Revenue Streams – The monetization of existing assets creates new revenue generation opportunities and business possibilities.
6. Enable Composite Enterprise Approach - Private APIs within Organizations facilitate a "Composite Enterprise" approach where business functionalities become small configurable blocks and new business offerings/possibilities are made by different combinations of these blocks.
7. Reduce time-to-market - Creating applications by using existing market or partner APIs for different business functionalities reduces the development time and provides businesses with a faster time-to-market.
8. Internet of Things and the Big Data - With the Internet of Things, huge streams of data flowing from devices to the back-end systems and from the users back to their devices via cloud are all enabled by APIs.