By Kim Yoo-chul
Staff Reporter
Microsoft said Wednesday that it will expand its open application programming interfaces (API) service in Korea by forming more strategic partnerships with the country’s leading online-service providers.
To push such ambitious goals, MS plans to provide Windows Live Messenger APIs to portals. Since early this year, MS has expanded the number of its partnerships with online players to 35 local media who share its software applications.
``Opening the API codes has become a global trend in the world’s online service industry. That’s why I am positive about our business,’’ Yoo Jae-sung, CEO of MS Korea said in a press conference held in a Seoul hotel.
``Social-networking sites including our MSN Messenger are inviting third-party developers to increase their customer base and build a sustainable business model,’’ Yoo said.
The ``write once run anywhere’’ concept is widely known as ``open social API.’’ These are a set of common APIs, which enable developers to create applications for social networks, blogs, and Web sites that accept the open social code.
Currently, for similar features and functionality on different Web sites, developers have to write new programs for each.
Opening the interface also means other sites will be able to extract contact information and also synchronize changes on their sites, according to industry experts.
Google and Yahoo have been offering choices of the open platforms and moving towards an open social network, while News Corp.’s MySpace.com and Friendster are expected to open their code to third-party developers this year on their social networking sites.
Despite its assertions, however, industry experts say the MS move is intended to reap more cash by pitching up online advertising campaigns.
``Growing online developers are taking our API service, meaning that our online sales will increase,’’ Yoo said, adding that MS will launch more advanced API services in November this year to meet growing demand for such platforms.
MS is hoping to catch up with Google’s online advertising business, currently worth some $38 billion, according to estimates from Zenith-Optimedia, a U.K.-based marketing firm.
Google dominates the online search world by taking up some 63 percent of the market, while a combined MS-Yahoo would be a distant second at some 16 percent, according to the data from market research firm comScore.
``By expanding partnerships with local online developers based on impressive performances of its Windows Live Messenger chatting programs, MS wants to grab bigger stakes in the growing online advertising industry in South Korea,’’ an MS employee said.
``Part of the problem with our online advertising strategy is that MS only gets 5 percent of its revenue from the online services business,’’ according to the MS official. The official, however, declined to be named.
Earlier, MS had initially failed to strike a partnership deal with Yahoo though Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang still remains open to additional talks.