HTTP is not just for serving up web pages. It is also a powerful platform for building APIs that expose services and data. HTTP is simple, flexible, and ubiquitous. Almost any platform that you can think of has an HTTP library, so HTTP services can reach a broad range of clients, including browsers, mobile devices, and traditional desktop applications.
ASP.NET Web API is a framework for building web APIs on top of the .NET Framework. In this tutorial, you will use ASP.NET Web API to create a web API that returns a list of products. The front-end web page uses jQuery to display the results.
http://www.asp.net/web-api/overview/getting-started-with-aspnet-web-api/tutorial-your-first-web-api