In the software world APIs, or Application Programming Interfaces, are increasingly common. APIs are the means for one piece of software to utilize the services offered by another piece of software. In the financial industry today, APIs are less common than in Silicon Valley. In my opinion, this is primarily due to the battle to capture a user inside a walled garden. Bloomberg is the master of this approach, creating a closed and proprietary system of hardware and software.
Bitvore has different ideas about how to make users happy.
1. Users want to get a job done, not learn new software.
Business users want to get a job done the easiest way possible - preferably in a way that is very familiar. Software developers create amazing things of which we are very proud, however busy potential users don't want the friction of learning a new process. The easiest way to help the users is to enhance the workflows and applications they use today. Our API allows our unique information to be included inside the software users already know and love. The tools they have adopted may be proprietary trading systems created by the company or third party fintech (financial technology) application the customer has already adopted. To the end user, enhanced information simply appears in the context of their existing workflows and tools.
2. Information is the new oil.
Companies like Bitvore and Google (at least the search engine we all use) are information providers. Other tech companies are in the business of automating processes. Consider Excel or Tableau, these products help you automate the manipulation and analysis of numbers. They don't provide any numbers - you provide the numbers. Bitvore is an information house. Our software produces information and it is that information that our customers need, not the software that produces it. Our API allows our customers to tap into the information that we produce and insert that information into other software that supports a process.
3. Replacing software is risky and expensive
On our personal phone, we may add and delete apps with ease; but corporations do not easily switch out software that automates a process. Many IT people have been asked to find new employment because they screwed this up. Switching out a system that dozens, hundreds or thousands of people rely on take a lot more effort than a little installation magic - it requires user training, support training, porting of existing information, possibly much more. Bitvore APIs allow our information to enhance user experiences inside existing systems. This is far easier and lower risk than replacing existing system.
Bitvore deliver precision, material business news and information. Bitvore enables material news from tens of thousands of different sources to be correlated to a specific government, hospital, corporation or other entities then presented on-demand. Now user looking at shifting numbers and statistics can easily see the intelligence that drives the numbers.