The Cambrian explosion of APIs

OK. I admit I had to look it up. But I now realise that Jeremy is making an apt evolutionary metaphor rather than a comparison with the tricky geography of Cumbria and the UK Lake District. Thank goodness for the API-rich world of Wikipedia. Without it I might forever have associated APIs with sticky toffee pudding, Cumberland sausage and long rambling walks. Unfortunately though, I still cannot get the world gurning championships images out of my head. 

"15% of mobile apps have APIs in them" says Jeremy. What on earth does that mean? All mobile apps make use of the rich set of APIs offered by HTML5 and/or the handset's operating system, and most mobile apps communicate with back-end servers via APIs of one sort or another. I'd love to know where the 15% figure came from, and how it's relevant to PSD2!

Tom - to clarify, the video refers to open APIs where an application uses data and services from an external source provided by a third party. I am not referring to low level operating system APIs which of course are used widely within a technology/systems stack inside an organisation.

Under the PSD2 (and in the UK, the CMA Open Banking requirements), any authorised third party will be able to use external, open APIs provided by banks (and other payment account providers) for payment initiation and account data.