Presentation delivered by Daedalus at API Days Mediterranea (Madrid, 1 June 2013). The Textalytics product has been rebranded to MeaningCloud http://www.meaningcloud.com/

1. A Tale of Two
(Semantic) APIs
Antonio Matarranz
Daedalus
Madrid, 1 June 2013
API-based Business
Development for
Semantic Technologies

2. API-based Business Development forSemantic Technologies
(Semantic)
APIs

3. API-based Business Development forSemantic Technologies
Some experiments in marketing
Semantic Technologies… and
how APIs can add to our
business model

4. API-based Business Development forSemantic Technologies
Semantic Technologies:
What are they and why they matter
Non-structured
Content is HUGE
Semantic Technologies extract MEANING from non-structured content

5. API-based Business Development forSemantic Technologies
Semantic Processing: automatic extraction of knowledge items
from non-structured, multimedia content
Sentiment
Topics
Facts
ConceptsOrganizations
People
Semantic
Processing
Make Content more
discoverable, findable, manageable, inf
ormative… more USEFUL
Semantic Technologies extract meaning
from multimedia content

6. API-based Business Development forSemantic Technologies
Future looks bright for Semantic Technologies….
Text analytics market > $1.2 billion in 2012
 But ~10% of total BI & analytics market
Analysts endorse it!

7. API-based Business Development forSemantic Technologies
Semantic Technologies: High-value applications
 Social-media analysis
 Media & publishing
 Targeted advertising
 Voice of the Customer: CRM,
product management &
marketing
 Competitive intelligence
 Homeland security, intelligence
& law enforcement
 Life sciences
 Legal, tax & regulatory (LTR)
including compliance
 Recruiting
Semantic
Processing

8. API-based Business Development forSemantic Technologies

9. API-based Business Development forSemantic Technologies
… But some dark clouds lie ahead for small vendors
 Typically, semantic technology delivered in on-premises mode
 Big vendors entrenched in the data (and text) analytics space: IBM, SAS…
 Not so fast adoption: Technical risk? Lack of killer application?
Are we in the (in)famous Chasm?

10. API-based Business Development forSemantic Technologies
Experiments
with Semantic
APIs

11. API-based Business Development forSemantic Technologies
API business models to the rescue!
 Instead of selling semantic software, publish an API
 Widely used business model in this industry
 Not the same business model as providing complete solutions for end customers:
• New customers (developers, integrators)
• New value proposition
• New channel
• New customer relationships
• New revenue streams
• New costs
• …
API = Business
Development 2.0

12. API-based Business Development forSemantic Technologies
Benefits for customer Benefits for vendor
API business models to the rescue!
 Open innovation - let them do the
inventing!
 Access to more markets (end
customers, applications, industries)…
even unexpected ones
 Low cost (Marketing & Sales)
 Scalable
 “Semantic enabler” - add semantics to
your system/process
 Low risk
 Low costs, pay-per-use
 Flexibility

13. API-based Business Development forSemantic Technologies
Limitations for vendor
 Slow revenue
 The “Cash Flow Trough”
 Churn risk
Limitations for customer
 At this stage of the semantic
technology maturity cycle
 Talent scarcity
 Learning curve
 Difficult to capture benefits
But APIs business models are not perfect!

14. API-based Business Development forSemantic Technologies
A day in the life of the user of a low-level semantic API
David is a Developer
He is the user of our API
He is proficient in Java, PHP, etc.
He wants to develop a cool
 Social media analysis tool
 Content tagging and enrichment
system
 Financial information analysis tool
 Etc.
… he hasn’t got a Ph.D. in
Computational Linguistics

15. API-based Business Development forSemantic Technologies
A day in the life of the user of a low-level semantic API
Typical NLP / Semantic APIs provides non-obvious functionality
Lemmatization, NER, categorization, clustering, POS…
When/how to use them?
How to combine all this functionality in an
optimized way, depending on the application?
 Twitter vs. News?
 Intelligence vs. brand monitoring?
How to inject domain-specific knowledge?
How do a get started?
How to REALLY LEVERAGE THIS?

16. API-based Business Development forSemantic Technologies
A new value proposition is needed
Typical Approach New Approach
For Whom Developers - with a high
knowledge of NLP, etc.
All Developers (we work the
technical details out for you)
What Plain Linguistic API:
POS, NER…
High-level, application specific
Semantic APIs:
• Media Analysis
• Semantic Publishing…
Preconfigured pipelines, linguistic
resources
SDK, plug-ins
Community …
Value Do It Yourself Plug-and-Play, productivity
We “productize” our know-how

17. API-based Business Development forSemantic Technologies
Our brand new Semantic APIs: Textalytics
Register at http://textalytics.com

18. API-based Business Development forSemantic Technologies
Our new brand for Semantic APIs
 Not your typical Semantic API
 High-level Semantic APIs, optimized for application scenarios
 Core API (building blocks)
 Launching soon! Topics
Sentiment
Classif.
Cluster
POS
Configuration and
Linguistic Resources
Configuration and
Linguistic Resources
Configuration and
Linguistic Resources
Media
Analysis API
Semantic
Publishing API
…

19. API-based Business Development forSemantic Technologies
APIs targeted to
specific applications
+ Core API

20. API-based Business Development forSemantic Technologies
Well documented
APIs, featuring pre-
configured
processing pipelines

21. API-based Business Development forSemantic Technologies
Test consoles
help understand
use without
programming

22. API-based Business Development forSemantic Technologies
SDKs and
plug-ins foster
trial and use

23. API-based Business Development forSemantic Technologies
Lessons Learned
APIs can be a successful business model for horizontal /
platform software technologies
But beware: your API may be “too horizontal”
70% good for everyone, 100% good for nobody
Packaged APIs, optimized for specific needs, can foster
adoption in high priority scenarios

24. API-based Business Development forSemantic Technologies
Thank you for your attention!
Questions, suggestions, etc.
Antonio Matarranz
Director, Marketing & Sales
amatarranz@daedalus.es
Daedalus, S.A.
Tel: +34 913324301
info@daedalus.es
http://www.daedalus.es
@daedalus_sa