Monetize your APIs using SAP Cloud Platform API Management
API Management on SAP Cloud Platform not only helps organizations to expose their digital assets in a secure manner but can also helps in providing new revenue opportunities. To give an example, Google Maps have exposed their APIs which enable third-party developers to embed the maps within their websites. Google allows free access up to a certain limit and later starts to charge the developers for each call to the APIs. Similarly, PayPal have also built APIs which allow third-party developer to use them within their applications to enable their customers to make payment for an item. In this process, PayPal takes a percentage of the sale. Using SAP Cloud Platform API Management, businesses can come up with their own innovative ideas to unlock the potential of the data and process which they already own in their systems. In this blog, I am going to briefly describe how you can start to expose and monetize your APIs. Shruthi has recently covered an important feature called “Metering” which is the foundation for this monetizing the APIs.
I will assume you are acquainted with SAP API Management on Cloud Platform.If not, please go through a good tutorial to get started.
From the API Portal in my trial account, I have created an API proxy.
Using the Monetize menu option, create a rate plan. In the below example, I have created a monthly rate plan with a minimum charge of 15 Euros and the charge for each API call is 5 Euros.
After saving the rate plan, this is how the plan will show up in the monetize menu.
I have created a new Product and added the API to it.
In the Rate plans tab, I have attached the rate plan and published the Product.
In the Developer Portal, I have subscribed to the Product and created a new Application.
From the Consume menu, the details of the new application can be viewed along with the Application key.
In the Test menu, I have executed the Product_API several times using the APIKey.
Now when I navigate to the Monetize menu in the developer Portal, I would be able to view the bill for each month. In the below example, the developer gets charged 45 Euros for the API calls.
To verify the calculations, I can navigate back to the API Portal and view the number of calls for this API in this month. In the below screenshot, you can see that I have made 9 API calls as a developer and hence charged 45 Euros.
The in-billing engine within API Management provide more visibility to developers who are consuming the APIs and is a great way for businesses to monetize their APIs.