The benefit would be a bunch of innovation that they don’t have to fund themselves. They get lots of developers building stuff on top of their API with them having to design, develop, and maintain it. A marketplace and ecosystem of Disney and adjacent tools that comes up with things they don’t have time or resources to build, or haven’t even thought of.

Many other companies their size do this successfully (although in different industries). Amazon Web Services for technical tools. Shopify and most e-commerce platforms have robust marketplaces. The investment in a small team to standardize, monitor, and deal with approvals can lead to lots of new functionality. The can be eventually expanded even to reward the tools with commissions on things like hotel bookings or dining reservations during off-peak times.

Sadly, the investment probably doesn’t make sense for Disney. What’s the benefit for them that justifies that cost?