Protocol Buffers, also known as protobuf, is a language-neutral data serialization format. It is used for structured data exchange between different applications or systems. Protobuf offers a smaller size and faster processing speed compared to other data serialization formats, like XML or JSON. It requires an understanding of its syntax and usage, making it a specialized skill. Protobuf is commonly used in large-scale distributed systems, microservices architecture, and application programming interfaces (APIs).