MasterCard to launch digital commerce developer tools

Financial services giant MasterCard announced plans to introduce open Application Programming Interfaces enabling third-party and independent software developers to build e-commerce and m-commerce solutions based on previously proprietary payments and data services. The first initiative from the fledgling MasterCard Labs unit, the new APIs will arrive later this year in association with a developer portal offering access to resources including technical documentation, software development kits, sample source code, reference guides and testing tools. MasterCard will also launch a developer forum in an effort to foster collaboration between coders and its in-house engineers.

MasterCard notes it has identified roughly 20 platforms and services open to developers, including mobile applications, gaming, merchant websites, e-wallets and payroll systems. The firm adds that its payment and data services also could be integrated with other data sources and functions to create mashups.

For more on MasterCard's developer initiative:
- read this release

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