The social network's intentions, noble or otherwise, are to increase the pool of application makers who build Facebook hooks into their apps.
With the purchase of Parse, Facebook has instantly moved from consumer social network to business service provider, playing host to the back end of thousands of mobile applications. In so doing, the company has bought access to data it could otherwise not touch.
On Thursday, Facebook announced that it agreed to acquire 2-year-old Parse for an undisclosed sum, though multiple reports peg the value at $85 million in cash and stock.
Parse serves as host to "tens of thousands" of iOS, Android, Windows, and HTML5 apps. The company offers mobile developers a convenience by taking care of back-end needs around data storage, people management, and notifications, all in exchange for a reasonable monthly fee.
When the deal closes, Facebook will become the new landlord to app makers who have chosen to make their home on Parse's platform. It will also inherit an entirely new revenue stream, though that seems to be the least of Facebook's interest in the mobile-attuned company.
With Parse, Facebook, once wading in the shallow end of the mobile ecosystem, has dived into the deep end and caused a splash so large that many will question the company's intentions, while others will cry of ecosystem pollution.
Facebook's intentions, noble or otherwise, are to increase the pool of application makers who build Facebook log-in, sharing, liking, commenting, tagging, and other features into their applications. The company, which just enhanced its mobile APIs to facilitate deeper links between applications and the social network, now has a fresh crop of app makers to pitch on the additional offerings. The sell is obvious: Hey, developers, look what you can add to your apps with just a few clicks, and you'll totally get a ton of traffic and new users back in return.
No comments:
Post a Comment