Application programming interface distributors RapidAPI and Mashape Inc. have announced a merger that will create what they claim is the world’s largest application program interface marketplace.

RapidAPI is based in San Francisco, and has established itself as a hub for developers to find and connect to APIs and manage multiple APIs from a single location. Mashape, meanwhile, offers an API gateway known as Kong, as well as a separate marketplace that’s being combined with RapidAPI’s.

The companies said their newly combined inventory totals more than 7,500 APIs. eWeek says this makes it far larger than any of its rivals, with companies such as Google Inc., Red Hat Inc. and Oracle Corp. housing repositories that number just hundreds of APIs in comparison.

APIs are loved by millions of developers as they’ve helped to usher in an era of rapid-fire software development. They’re practically invisible to every day web users, but behind the scenes they’re used every single time a device or service user clicks on a button to connect to the web, linking together thousands of applications, networks and servers across the world.

“Software is exponentially more powerful when it communicates,” wrote RapidAPI Chief Executive Officer Iddo Gino in a blog post announcing the merger. “Think about it. When you log in to a gaming app with Facebook, you can see all your friends who play. When Amazon’s shopping portal connects with the warehouse inventory, you get shipping estimates in real time. And when you book a flight? It’s already scheduled in your Google Calendar.”

APIs are what make those connections possible, Gino added. “They allow different pieces of software to talk to each other, share information and make our lives easier.”

Ovum Research says the API economy is growing rapidly, and will become a $2.2 trillion market by 2018. With the merger, RapidAPI and Mashape become one of the key providers in that market.

Gino in his blog post said that this was just the start, and that APIs are evolving rapidly to open many doors that were previously closed. Using APIs, it’s possible for developers to access services such as IBM Corp.’s supercomputers and Google’s machine learning models from any location, which means they can leverage resources far more powerful than anything they’ve been able to work with previously.

“We want to make it easier for developers to find, test and connect to APIs,” Gino said. “Our plan has always been to consolidate all of the APIs in the world under one roof. Merging the Mashape API marketplace into RapidAPI makes that goal closer than ever. Together, we have 370,000 developers making 300 billion API calls a month. That’s over 100,000 API calls a second.”

The companies said it’s now possible to log into either RapidAPI or Mashape and access their newly combined marketplace from both platforms. Existing applications and APIs will work normally as before, and developers can view analytics through both interfaces, the companies said.

Image: RapidAPI/Mashape