Which industries might benefit from employing Kotlin in their backend?
Kotlin backend in different industries.
Kotlin is becoming increasingly popular among backend development programming languages. Some companies use it as a replacement for Java due to the easy transition process ensured by the interoperability with the existing Java code. See how different industries adopt Kotlin for their backend and server-side operations. It may give you some initiative to consider switching or starting using Kotlin for your purposes.
Kotlin programming language for backend applications in FinTech.
The finance sector can be an excellent environment for Kotlin to thrive in development. In FinTech, it can aid in supporting hundreds of thousands of users at the same time. For example, Pivotal has been using Kotlin for its backend development since 2016. Faire.com have its backend in Kotlin, and its website supports more than 300 000 users per month.
The key features of Kotlin
Null safety features in Kotlin language can aid in preventing common programming errors that can lead to severe consequences. In finance, this can be exceptionally costly. It helps to eliminate the jeopardy of null references from the code. For example, a typical property can’t hold a null value and will show a compile error. This allows us to catch the mistake and fix it accordingly.
Kotlin has a robust type system that catches errors at compile time, making writing reliable and secure code easier. This is particularly important in the FinTech industry, where security and reliability are critical. Kotlin makes a practical choice for developers to express complex financial algorithms and business logic that are easy to read and maintain.
Kotlin is a great modern language with a concise syntax that can make creating complex financial applications easier. It helps to avoid and eliminate the need for problematic boilerplate code.
Kotlin being fully interoperable with Java, is one of its most versatile assets across different sectors. Since the financial industry has widely adopted Java as its primary language, it may be costly to replace it. Since Kotlin is fully compatible with the existing Java code, it can make a valuable tool for FinTech server-side applications with legacy codebases.
Kotlin supports functional programming paradigms, which can help build complex financial systems. It supports higher-order functions, lambdas, and other practical programming concepts.
The financial sector is extremely complex and has extremely intricate structures as well (and not just because of Java ). We can reduce boilerplate thanks to Kotlin’s expressiveness (which decreases the time it takes to develop any feature) while still feeling secure because of the language’s null safety features.
Examples of companies using Kotlin in their backend in the finance sector.
this digital banking provider decided to adopt Kotlin for the reasons many others do – its gradual learning curve, providing an opinionated way to do things and perform tasks, its specific features like nullable types, optional immutability at a language level and proper lambdas.
Their journey towards Kotlin as a backend programming language involved discussing the transition idea with interested engineers and discussing and addressing concerns. They’ve decided to proceed with the adoption. In 2018, 10% of their GitHub repositories were converted into Kotlin.
ING Netherlands take pride in looking towards new technology stack and other solutions to increase efficiency and productivity and keep the engineering skills up to date. What drew them to Kotlin, compared to other programming languages, for a backend web developer was the straightforward syntax, growing adoption and how swiftly it is to transition from a Java background. Kotlin also addressed the security concerns that are important for dealing with finances.
American Express
In 2016, American Express started working on their library that allowed access to some metadata. After that, they debated between Java 8 and Kotlin. They valued what Kotlin could offer, including support for proper lambdas.
Kotlin backend development in Marketplaces.
E-commerce and online marketplaces are essential branches of digital business sectors. Ensuring they can safely serve hundreds of thousands of users monthly is crucial to their operation. Using Kotlin for server-side backend and web development can help develop a stable platform users will happily implement.
Thanks to modern language features that help avoid common mistakes. Interoperability with Java makes it easy to use Kotlin with existing Java libraries. An experienced Java developer can adopt Kotlin easier. Thus hiring and outsourcing the developers can be more accessible.
One of the prime examples of companies that embraced Kotlin in their backend is Faire. The velocity of Kotlin features made developing their web application an exciting and preferable option.
The migration started by using the Java-to-Kotlin converter built into IntelliJ IDEA. It helped with revealing previously made assumptions about the nullability of different variables. The developers could overcome some of the issues via trial and error methods.
Their favourite Kotlin web development features included data class functions, a type system, read-only collections, and nullable annotations. Lambda expressions and type inference allowed for writing the desired code with appropriate necessary functions.
Other marketplaces choosing Kotlin for the backend.
Doordash
It may be less of a proper marketplace. However, in some sense, it serves as a hub for food delivery services. They’ve decided to diversify their server operations into multiple backend services in Kotlin. It gave them tools to build a complex, scaleable platform. They were able to create a solid ecosystem based on JVM. Their favourite features include extension functions, data classes, function blocks and coroutines.
Zalando
This fashion giant adapted Kotlin in their backend through the Spring Boot framework. This versatile framework integrates well with Kotlin, is compatible with various application servers, and supports reactive programming via WebFlux. They are also considering the adoption of the Ktor framework in the future.
Other
Other e-commerce platforms that use Kotlin for the backend operations are Alibaba, South Korean Coupang and an e-commerce giant – Wayfair.
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Backend Kotlin web development in the entertainment sector.
Kotlin for the backend also found its way into the entertainment industry.
Kotlin has made its way into streaming services. Most streaming giants like Netflix or gaming-oriented Twitch use it for mobile apps. Amazon uses Kotlin for their backend in Prime Video service. They used the features of Kotlin to create microservices for creating user profiles within the account.
Valuable functions like null safety, data classes, and first-class and extension features were the decisive factors facilitating Kotlin. Amazon developers also found the concise syntax and reduced code valuable.
Although Kotlin is not recommended for developing games in their core structure, some smaller productions like Horde, TetroCrate, Asteroid++ and Ore Infinium were created using Kotlin. The KorGE game engine offers a range of features for making games. They include a powerful editor embedded in IntelliJ IDE, a live debugger to live-debug your games, etc. Kotlin can deploy games on mobile, web and desktop systems.
Besides developing games, Kotlin can be used for data storage features, like creating leaderboards within online games. It can also be adapted for various connected applications communicating quickly with a server.
Other big players promoting Kotlin in the backend.
Adobe
adopted Kotlin as part of their backend web applications. Specifically, they found Kotlin especially useful for data collection. They wanted to collect data on customers’ visits and returning customers. Kotlin solutions allow monitoring of the changes in the data over time while securing it from tampering and offering data storage.
Experts at Adobe also value Kotlin for its high productivity. They adopted the Vert.X web framework and Ktor while maintaining their backend as a mix of Java and Kotlin.
is one of the strongest supporters of Kotlin supporters. They don’t only hope that every Android backend developer will use Kotlin to develop mobile apps and application programming interfaces. They also strongly support Kotlin for computer programming and cloud applications. Server-side Google’s internal database stores 8.5 million lines of server-side software code written in Kotlin.
Build your future with Kotlin.
Kotlin is slowly solidifying its position among popular programming languages. Although it’s mostly known for mobile app development, thanks to its multiplatform functionalities, it can easily find its place in the backend and server-side development. Various industries can benefit from adopting Kotlin.
If the examples above sparked some inspiration for your current or new projects, let us assist you in building them. We have dedicated Kotlin experts that can help you develop your product. Don’t hesitate to contact us to see how we can help you.
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