Exclusive interview with APICloud CTO Zou Da: A full-stack engineer forced out

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In the era of mobile Internet, APP is like a huge gold mine. Besides hearing countless screams and shouts, there are more people saying, "I have an idea to change the world, and I just need an APP." In this era of scarce CTOs, countless entrepreneurs have died on the road to the gold mine. In addition to performance issues such as freezes and crashes, the bigger problem is the long development cycle.

APICloud's Zou Da told the reporter: "If it only takes an Android and iOS programmer a month to develop a certain app, then it only takes a week with APICloud."

APICloud, as a cloud-based development tool, aims to solve two problems. The first is the problem of development efficiency. Zou Da told reporters: "At the beginning of the rise of APP, he once helped his friends to develop APP. The cycle of a project was two to three months, and every time the finished product could not be reused in the second project.

The second is the cross-platform problem. Although the H5 method is convenient and fast, the performance problem is always a hurdle that cannot be overcome. In theory, there is no difference between the APP developed with APICloud and the native one. We hope that in the future our platform will be the fastest and most advanced in the world. "Zou Da told reporters.

Should we work on technology for ten years, or work on one technology for ten years?

When the reporter asked this question, Zou Da said without hesitation: "Of course it is the latter. The technology I understand is not just a technology, but a direction. The reason why I can do a technology for ten years is because the technology itself has potential. With the development of technology, I will also be improved.

In my opinion, the most important question is what kind of technology to choose, compared to "ten years of technology or ten years of technology". Zou Da also believes: "In 2006, when it was still the era of Philips and Nokia, many people envied those who could make mobile phones, but after really getting into it, they found that making mobile phones did not have much technical content, because the systems were fixed and most of the codes were written. They could only make some simple modifications, and there was no sense of accomplishment in writing software from scratch. Because of this, I envied those software engineers who had a sense of accomplishment from scratch. At that time, the only things that could be sold in mobile phones were browsers and emails, so I made browsers for a sense of accomplishment.

Don’t want to be a full stack engineer

Zou Da has been focusing on browser development since he started working on it. Until he started his own business, Zou Da was forced to become a full-stack engineer.

A while ago, many developers discussed on Zhihu how to become a full-stack engineer, but Zou Da said frankly: "I don't really want to be a full-stack engineer, but I have no choice. I am forced to do it."

At the beginning of APICloud, Zou Da, as CTO, was responsible for the construction of all the company's infrastructure, including application engines and services, server deployment, construction, monitoring, front-end, etc. He admitted that he wanted to be a full-stack engineer. In my opinion, it is not enough to have no pressure, people are forced.

Zou Da also mentioned: "If you want to become a full-stack engineer, unless you start a business, your income will be much lower if you enter an unfamiliar field. Moreover, technologies such as server load are difficult to reach a certain level without a certain number of users. Many very good engineers in many fields are paid by companies, and they can only accumulate a certain amount of experience when the load pressure is very high.

API Startups

The rise of APPs was in 2010 when smartphones first emerged. Zou Da told reporters: "At that time, some friends asked him to make APPs for both iOS and Android. Each time, he would spend several months of his rest time. However, when the next project came, many similar things he had written before could not be reused. At that time, I wondered if there was any way to write it only once and reuse it?

Many excellent projects start with solving pain points, and APICloud is no exception. Zou Da even thought that even if this thing cannot be sold after it is completed, I can still use it myself. In the Internet era, APICloud redefines mobile development with Internet thinking.

Hope

In February this year, APICloud released its first ecological product, which pays more attention to Web developers. Not only can they use APICloud to make good applications, but they can also monetize in more ways. In an industry where supply exceeds demand, APICloud will gather a large number of excellent developers. If APICloud has such a mature ecological chain - module developers, service providers, and API developers, they can all make profits through this platform. This is the value of the APICloud platform, making it a leader in API development.