Refers to the way application programming interfaces (APIs) can positively affect a company’s profitability, where the APIs enable businesses to either scale quickly by leveraging APIs to access third-party data and services (like the aforementioned Square API does) or turn its own services and data into a platform that attract partners to build upon and brings new customers onto its platform in the process (like the Helix model).
For the API-publishing companies, they benefit from the API economy from the added value and new users that third-party developers bring to their services and platforms.