2020 China API Ecosystem and Developer Survey Report: Findings on API Usage, Development Practices, and Lifecycle Management

Digital transformation has deeply penetrated all industries, and APIs—once simple code interfaces—have evolved into core products that enable enterprises to deliver value and connect business processes, especially when combined with micro‑services and DevOps.

Despite widespread API adoption as data services, many organizations still misunderstand API lifecycle management, tools, and value realization; developers must consider how to leverage external consumer markets to shift from application‑level to technology‑level solutions and turn internal functions into external services.

To illuminate the current state and opportunities of China’s API landscape, Huawei Cloud, InfoQ Research Institute, IDCF Community and others released the "China API Ecosystem and Developer Survey Report (2020)", providing multi‑view analysis of API ecology, developers, users, and full‑lifecycle management.

1. API Ecosystem Perspective

Among survey participants, the ratio of API users to developers is about 2:1; developers involved in development, design/architecture account for roughly 64% of respondents, while roles such as documentation, deployment, security, support and monitoring are less represented. Additionally, 44.4% of developers have less than three years of experience, indicating a relatively early‑stage market with limited product capabilities.

The market shows strong demand for external tools to quickly implement business logic, suggesting ample space for API product providers.

2. API User Perspective

Users now seek not only data but also technical and business capabilities, demanding efficient discovery and invocation, high performance, and quality post‑service support.

3. API Developer Perspective

Developers primarily create APIs to optimize internal systems, foster ecosystems, and enable external collaboration, with profitability being a secondary goal. Key concerns include performance, availability, functionality and security. Java and IntelliJ IDEA are the dominant language and IDE, while design, documentation, testing and related tools are heavily used; tool usability is a major focus.

4. API Lifecycle Management

API development and management are moving toward scaled, standardized, team‑based processes covering design, testing, documentation, monitoring, and tool integration.

Key practices include using RAML/Swagger editors for design, YAPI and Postman for testing, and a mix of self‑built and third‑party documentation tools, while API gateways have become the preferred method for exposing APIs.

5. Future Outlook

Future challenges focus on standardization, composability/reusability, and security; standardization will promote inter‑connectivity and accelerate project development. Anticipated trends include deeper integration of micro‑services with API strategies, increasing reliance of IoT on APIs, and greater business value from DevOps‑API convergence.

The report aggregates over 5,000 data entries from more than a dozen organizations, supplemented by expert interpretations, and is available for download as a full PDF.