Guardian launches developer platform for content sharing

Launch to be followed by an application development challenge

The Guardian News and Media group launched its Open Development Platform today

The Guardian News and Media group (GNM) officially launched its Open Development Platform today.

The platform, which launched as a beta 18 months ago, now hosts 200 apps, products and data visualisations, and has 2,000 registered developers.

The platform comprises developer tools and resources and the launch will see the Guardian make its content available for advertisers and brands looking to tailor it to specific online campaigns.

Today's launch will see the service passed from the technology team to the commercial team. A spokeswoman for GNM said: “This will see the group begin to monetise the platform." She added, "as far as we know, this is the first time an online publisher has made its content available to developers in this way.”

The Open Development platform has two elements: the content API which allows users to search the database and download content from articles in a format that can be integrated with other web applications; and the Data Store, a directory of statistics curated by Guardian editors.

Users can take up three types of service:

Keyless: Gives users free access to Guardian headlines, tags and meta data. No registration or key is required. Partners can keep associated revenue from Guardian content.

Approved: Provides a licence to publish Guardian articles in full – the Guardian embeds advertisement performance tracking and a watermark within the articles. Partners can keep associated revenue earned. Registration and a key are required.

Bespoke: Customises solutions for licensing content and integrating rich applications directly within the Guardian network. The group offers sponsorship, licensing, revenue sharing and other custom commercial programmes.

Following the launch there will be a 24-hour Developer Challenge, sponsored by Amazon Web Services. This will see GNM developers respond to briefs pitched at the launch.