While just about every developer and software engineer spends some time daydreaming about creating the next TikTok or Twitter, application programming interfaces (APIs) are the revenue-generating workhorses today's apps depend on. These interfaces operate as the hidden framework of many of today's most popular apps, allowing developers to plug them in where needed instead of building them from scratch. Learn more about how APIs operate as the "worker bees" behind the scene of every app, as well as how Microbilt is revolutionizing the debt collection API world.
How Do APIs Increase App Functionality?
There is often some significant overlap in the types of services and functions available within applications. For example, tens of thousands of different apps accept user payments via credit or debit card, Zelle, Apple Pay, or PayPal—which means that building a payment mechanism inside a new app can be like reinventing the wheel. Instead, by using an API to communicate with the relevant payment processor, you can add payment functionality at a fraction of the cost and time commitment of building it yourself.
What's the Sales Market for APIs?
Many API developers have found the market for these products to be a lucrative one, even if many of the most popular APIs aren't likely to ever be household names. Because APIs offer a service, developers generally set a per-use rate instead of a flat fee. Even if this rate is less than a cent, hundreds of thousands of uses can quickly add up—particularly because the generic nature of an API lends itself well to a broad customer base.
Meanwhile, software developers that take advantage of APIs in their applications can find pay a per-use rate to be far more economical than building in this functionality themselves and dealing with updates, security patches, and other maintenance.
Collection and Recovery APIs
If your app could benefit from the addition of "people search" features, Microbilt offers a wide range of search, collection, and recovery APIs to fit these needs. Just a few of these APIs include:
- Bank Account Search, leveraging multiple data sources to find and confirm bank routing and account numbers;
- Vehicle Search, which can locate and reveal vehicle information ranging from VIN, license plate number, year, make, model, type, and color;
- Phone Search and Reverse Phone Search, which can use a name and/or address to generate a phone number or return all names, addresses, and other identifying information associated with a particular phone number;
- Skip Trace Detail, which can locate neighbors, relatives, and business associates who may be able to track down (or provide more information on) a particular individual;
- Enhanced People Search, which finds and verifies current and past addresses, phone numbers, former names or aliases, Social Security numbers, date of birth, and just about every other piece of identifying information available for a particular individual.
Adding these types of rest API functionality to your app can yield major dividends by providing users with the ability to track down debtors, find the owner of a particular phone number, or even place a lien on a bank account. However, some of the more data-intensive search and locate APIs (like the skip tracing API and locate people API) require user credentialing to ensure that this sensitive information doesn't fall into the wrong hands. Learn more about the consumer data APIs Microbilt offers by visiting our website today.