SOAX Releases APIs for Google, Amazon, Social Media, Teases Web Unblocker

The world runs on data, and much of the most valuable data lives on the web. Businesses in every industry rely on harvesting online data to power everything from search to e-commerce to market intelligence. The global web scraping market is projected to surpass $13.7 billion by 2028 as demand for extracting insights from websites continues rising.

However, scraping can be technically challenging without the proper tools and infrastructure. Using residential proxies is essential for bypassing blocks, managing scale, and collecting quality data. Major proxy provider SOAX is now expanding into this market by launching web scraping APIs and an unblocking service.

Let‘s take a deeper look at SOAX‘s new products and how they fit into the web data extraction landscape.

The Growing Role of Web Scraping and Proxies

Before we overview SOAX‘s tools, it‘s helpful to understand why web scraping and proxies are so critical for businesses today.

Search engines, e-commerce sites, social media – these hold invaluable data for driving competitive advantage. Unfortunately, most of this data is not available through official APIs. Scraping becomes necessary to gather the insights locked behind HTML and JavaScript.

Here are some examples of what companies can gain from web scraping:

• Pricing intelligence – Monitor competitors‘ prices and product catalogs. React quickly to market changes.

• Market research – Analyze trends, reviews, and feedback across the web. Discover new opportunities.

• Lead generation – Extract emails, names, companies from websites and social media. Feed into sales and marketing automation.

• Data services – Offer web data as commercial products or feeds for clients. High demand.

No wonder web scraping is being embraced across retail, finance, real estate, healthcare, travel, and more.

However, scraping brings headaches like getting blocked or overloaded by target sites. This is where proxies become invaluable for overcoming these obstacles to scalable data extraction.

Proxies provide new IP addresses to spread requests across. Residential proxies from real devices offer the most realistic browsing behavior to avoid blocks. Rotating IPs ensures you stay under sites‘ radars.

Top proxy providers like BrightData, Oxylabs, and now SOAX make it possible to deploy proxies seamlessly for large-scale scraping. Many also offer specialized web scraping tools and managed services.

Which brings us to SOAX‘s new scraping products…

Overview of SOAX‘s New Web Scraping Tools

SOAX has introduced two new product lines to tackle web data extraction:

ScrapeIn – A set of web scraping APIs covering top search engines, e-commerce sites, and social networks.

Web Unblocker – A proxy API that integrates with tools to unblock sites and hide scraping activity.

Combined, SOAX now provides both turnkey data extraction APIs as well as low-level proxies to support custom scraping projects.

The common thread is tapping SOAX‘s large proxy network to enable high-scale scraping that evades blocks. SOAX boasts 40M+ residential IPs optimized for web data collection across 195 regions.

For businesses that already use SOAX for proxies or other services, the new tools are compelling offerings under a familiar brand. Let‘s explore them in more detail.

Key Capabilities of the ScrapeIn Web Scraping APIs

The ScrapeIn product line offers ready-made APIs for extracting data from popular sites. Currently, three main options are available or in development:

SERP API

• Structured data from Google search and verticals – images, videos, news, maps, shopping
• Supports general queries as well as site:, product:, and other advanced operators

E-Commerce API

• Detailed product data, reviews, sellers from Amazon storefront
• Categories, search results, deals/trends also available
• eBay, Walmart, Target planned for future expansion

Social Media API (beta)

• Data extraction capabilities for Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn
• Covering posts, profiles, comments, followers, groups, analytics
• Expected Q4 2024 release

These APIs eliminate the need to build custom scrapers for valuable data sources. Next let‘s compare some of the key features across the SERP, Shopping, and upcoming Social offerings.

Feature	SERP API	Shopping API	Social Media API
Core Data Offering	Google web search results	Amazon products, sellers, reviews	Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn
Breadth of Capabilities	150k queries/month	500k products/month	TBD requests/month
Pricing Range	$59-$999/month	$149-$1499/month	TBD
Most Suited For	SEO, market research	E-commerce optimization	Social monitoring, ads

While the Social API details are still limited, it promises access to social data that is highly prized but risky to gather at scale. For marketers, unlocking analytics and audience insights across social platforms holds tremendous value.

However, recent high-profile lawsuits against social media scraping means caution is warranted. Responsible and ethical practices will be required.

For most commercial purposes, the SERP and Shopping APIs offer less controversial and more immediately usable data. Both provide robust coverage of their respective domains.

I expect the Shopping API will become especially popular for e-commerce companies due to the wealth of Amazon data it unlocks – a true goldmine for product analytics and competitive optimization.

Next let‘s break down the pricing and usage limits across ScrapeIn‘s API offerings.

ScrapeIn Pricing Breakdown and Usage Limits

Pricing for ScrapeIn is based on monthly request packages that renew automatically. Requests refers to API calls returning data – so pricing correlates directly with your data needs.

Here is an overview of the request limits and monthly costs for each API:

A few things stand out:

• SERP API offers the lowest entry point at $59 for 23k queries. Great for initial research.

• Shopping provides tremendous scale, with up to 768k products monthly at $999.

• Top tiers for Shopping and SERP offer sharply reduced CPM rates averaging around $1.50.

• Social Media request volumes and pricing still to be determined.

The free 5k request trial for all APIs is helpful for firsthand testing. Overall, ScrapeIn is competitively priced compared to alternative scraping services.

Let‘s look at a real pricing example based on typical usage volumes:

• An e-commerce business needs to analyze ~250k Amazon products each month to monitor competitors and optimize listings.
• At the $999/month Shopping API tier, 768k requests are included for $1.30 CPM.
• So retrieving 250k products would cost $325 (250k / 1000 * $1.30).
• Compared to building a scraper, the API returns far more fields of structured data without engineering costs.

As this shows, for medium to large-scale data needs the value proposition of ScrapeIn becomes clear. For targeted scraping use cases, these APIs can deliver high-quality results without the headaches of managing scrapers and proxies yourself.

Next let‘s explore how SOAX‘s Web Unblocker proxy compares to alternatives for bypassing blocks.

How Web Unblocker Helps Bypass Blocks and Restrictions

In addition to the scraping APIs, SOAX introduced Web Unblocker – a proxy service for evading blocks and accessing any site.

It works by providing residential proxy IPs that can be integrated directly into data extraction tools. The proxy endpoints take the standard hostname:port format.

Likely Web Unblocker taps into SOAX‘s existing 40M IP pool. Residential proxies from real devices offer highly realistic browsing behavior that avoids triggering anti-scraper mechanisms.

This makes it an alternative to proxy services like BrightData‘s Unlocker or Storm Proxies for unlocking target sites.

Some key benefits the SOAX residential proxies enable:

• Rotate different IPs to prevent concentrating traffic.
• Mimic real human browsing with credible device fingerprints.
• Bypass IP blocks by spreading requests across a large proxy pool.
• Overcome rate limits by controlling request pacing.
• Scrape Javascript-heavy sites using browser-level rendering.

Advanced proxies also allow targeting specific locations, carriers, and other parameters to evade blocks based on these factors.

Overall, having robust proxies is essential to scale data extraction without disruptions. SOAX is well positioned to deliver here based on their existing infrastructure.

However, so far technical details on targeting options, IP types/locations, and other aspects of Web Unblocker remain limited. More details are likely to emerge leading up to an official launch.

Next let‘s analyze how SOAX‘s scraping tools compare to existing competitors.

Competitive Landscape and Alternative Web Scraping Solutions

By entering web data extraction tools, SOAX is joining a crowded field of experienced players with mature products.

For its SERP API, leading alternative services include:

• ScrapeStack – SERP APIs starting at $30/month for 5k queries. Additional endpoints available.
• ScraperAPI – Plans from $99/month for 300k Google searches. Separate Pricing API.
• ParseHub – DIY scraping plus API options. 1M Google searches at $499/month.

For Shopping data, ScrapeStack and ParseHub offer Amazon scrapers. More specialized options like DataHawk focus solely on e-commerce analytics.

In social media scraping, niche providers like ScraperBox and ScrapingBee excel. But legal risks remain a barrier.

And competitors for Web Unblocker include:

• BrightData Unlocker – 700M+ IPs with flexible targeting. From $500/month.
• Oxylabs Next-Gen Residential Proxies – 40M+ IPs. Starts at $300/month.

SOAX offers a recognizable brand in proxies and competitive pricing. However, vendors focused solely on data extraction bring more mature scraping capabilities honed over years.

SOAX‘s greatest advantage lies in its large-scale residential proxy network. With sufficient proxies, they can enable higher concurrency and uptime versus more niche scraping tools.

But SOAX‘s lack of experience running scalable APIs creates execution risks. Support responsiveness and reliability take time to refine when operating at scale.

Still, SOAX‘s infrastructure and roadmap put them on strong footing to carve out a segment of the web data extraction industry.

Key Takeaways for Businesses Looking to Utilize Web Scraping

For any company relying on web scraping, SOAX‘s latest tools are worth evaluating. Here are the key implications:

Consider the SERP/Shopping APIs for hands-off data access

The pre-built capabilities can provide high-quality structured data for market research, competitive pricing analysis, e-commerce optimization, and more. Just integrate the API instead of managing scrapers.

Weigh Web Unblocker for better proxy coverage

It diversifies options for residential proxies and website unblocking. But monitor adoption for possible growing pains in stability and support.

Supplement existing scraping stack for added scale/reliability

SOAX‘s proxy backbone may enable higher concurrency and uptime versus niche scraping solutions. But don‘t abandon current tools – blend together.

Review legal considerations around social media data

Huge potential value, but scrutiny is increasing. Ensure responsible practices like using the APIs strictly for market research insights.

Start with targeted use cases before wide adoption

For example, use the Shopping API just for Amazon price monitoring. See how performance and support stack up for your specific needs before expanding usage.

Compare pricing to current costs

Weigh monthly subscriptions versus engineer time and proxy costs for custom scraping. Factor in the higher data quality and savings from APIs.

By following these steps, your business can take a measured approach to integrating SOAX‘s new tools. Target the highest value web data needs first.

The Bottom Line

Web scraping and proxies continue growing in importance as businesses race to unlock insights from online data. SOAX‘s web data extraction APIs and proxy service represent ambitious entries into this key market.

The ScrapeIn brand offers turnkey capabilities for top search and e-commerce platforms. And Web Unblocker provides a scalable new option for bypassing blocks using residential IP rotation.

However, SOAX has a high bar to contend with specialized scraping incumbents and proxy competitors. Maturing support and delivery capabilities will be imperative.

Still, SOAX boasts undeniable strengths around infrastructure, scale, and brand recognition. Their new tools warrant evaluation for businesses seeking to expand web data harvesting.

Approaching adoption gradually and comparing value against existing solutions remains wise. But early signs point to SOAX becoming a compelling new choice in an essential – and controversial – data extraction market.