AccuWeather: Opening its APIs for new customers and new revenue

About AccuWeather

AccuWeather is the world's leading weather media and big data company, serving nearly 2 billion people and more than than xxx billion API information requests daily. It's the preloaded conditions partner on ix out of ten of the globe'southward elevation smartphones. The AccuWeather API Programmer Portal allows easy access to the most accurate, detailed weather data to develop innovative new weather condition experiences.

Industries: Engineering

Location: United States

AccuWeather has evolved to offer JSON-formatted, easily buried, and highly efficient APIs that can handle the massive volumes of data required past the mobile world.

Inside two months of launching the AccuWeather developer portal:

  • Over 6,500 users signed upward
  • Nearly 2,500 users created API keys
  • Close to sixty users purchased one of AccuWeather'south iii API packages

Processing 30B+ API requests per day

AccuWeather has enjoyed groovy success sharing its world-class conditions data via APIs with a range of global partners, who have congenital applications for continued cars, smart homes, wearables, smart TVs, mobile devices, and more.

Simply, the company wanted to go its data into the hands of a new kind of customer: individual developers. Information technology needed a manner to engage this audience and tailor its offerings to the varying needs of developers—and monetize those different offering levels accordingly.

"Monetization was a fundamental selling point of Apigee for us. Beingness able to get started with Apigee, sign upwards, break out our APIs into set packages, and accept developers come in and purchase—it's been a great tool for us."

—Mark Iannelli, Senior Technical Account Director, AccuWeather

Monetization

To build a simple and fast way for developers to get started building with an appropriate level of API calls and features for their needs, AccuWeather realized it required a sophisticated API management platform—i that enabled different tiers of offerings past bundling APIs into different products, each with their own rate limits and pricing.

"Monetization was a central selling point of Apigee for us. Being able to get started with Apigee, sign up, break out our APIs into set up packages, and have developers come in and purchase—information technology's been a great tool for the states," said Mark Iannelli, Senior Technical Account Director at AccuWeather.

Unlike a train schedule or flight info, some weather condition data must be updated throughout the day. Current observations, such equally temperatures, tempest outlooks, and rain potential, tin can alter past the minute—every bit evidenced by the volume of AccuWeather's API requests of over thirty billion per mean solar day.

On the other manus, daily forecasts tend to be more static, reducing the need for constant updates. AccuWeather offers different weather condition content as distinct APIs—including electric current conditions, daily forecasts, hourly forecasts, and indices—and so developers call information as needed. This, in plow, helps reduce unnecessary data requests that increment information usage and potential battery consumption in mobile devices. But it besides drove the need for a new way to charge users.

"With a base monthly fee, but too a CPM (cost per thousand) calls rate, users can customize API consumption to their specific needs," says Iannelli. "Apigee helps us to track and neb that traffic. Nosotros love that."

Flexible billing for API usage also helps ensure that developers' products don't neglect because of increased traffic, according to Iannelli.

"Nosotros don't desire monthly quotas preventing developer or product growth—we want to encourage this past enabling pay-every bit-you lot-go," he says.

"A single programmer always has the potential to be working on the next big thing and become our side by side large enterprise partner. We needed a way to reach them, and the AccuWeather API Programmer Portal, powered past Apigee, accomplishes that."

—Mark Iannelli, Senior Technical Account Director, AccuWeather

The developer portal

Even with its newly divers API products and fine-tuned pricing plans, AccuWeather needed a way to entice developers to try these customized packages, minus the hassle that can sometimes proceed with getting started with a visitor's APIs.

"Earlier we had an API management platform, developers who wanted to expect at our APIs needed to reach out to our sales team and go through a very manual and time-consuming process to get started," says Iannelli. "We wanted to make this self-service, so that developers could demo, buy, and then start developing."

With the customizable Apigee developer portal, developers tin sign upward quickly, learn almost the AccuWeather APIs, test them out, and sign up very easily.

"We want to attain a new audition, and assistance them grow their ideas with AccuWeather," says Iannelli. "A single developer always has the potential to exist working on the side by side big affair and go our side by side big enterprise partner. We needed a way to attain them, and the AccuWeather API Developer Portal, powered past Apigee, accomplishes that."

Analytics

Primal to keeping its API products geared to the needs of its users, the analytics capabilities offered by Apigee enable the AccuWeather team to observe traffic patterns and understand how users view weather information over the course of a mean solar day. This helps ensure that data is provided to users when and how they desire information technology, speedily and efficiently.

"With Apigee, nosotros're able to continue shut tabs on who's signing up, what sort of traffic they are producing, from where—and even observe unexpected patterns in traffic activity," Iannelli says.

This helps AccuWeather not but ensure that developers are using the APIs as designed, but also to target those who might exist candidates for other API packages or options that could improve adjust their needs.

Looking ahead, Iannelli notes that working with Apigee will enable AccuWeather to quickly reply to the needs of its customers and develop new API products.

"Every customer has unique products or features they might need. Nosotros await forrard to getting to a point where we can adjust all of those unique needs. With Apigee, we know that's possible."

Virtually AccuWeather

AccuWeather is the world'southward leading weather media and large data company, serving nearly ii billion people and more than than 30 billion API information requests daily. It's the preloaded weather partner on 9 out of ten of the globe'due south elevation smartphones. The AccuWeather API Developer Portal allows like shooting fish in a barrel access to the most authentic, detailed weather data to develop innovative new weather experiences.

Industries: Technology

Location: U.s.