How Facebook App Center is aiding iOS, Android app discovery

Erica Ogg — Tue, 14 Aug 2012 16:53:48 +0000

Facebook’s new App Center saw 150 million users in July, and referred users 170 million times to Apple’s App Store and Google’s Play store in that same month, Facebook Product Manager for Apps and Games Matt Wyndowe said at the Game Developers Conference in Cologne, Germany Tuesday, according to TechCrunch.

The App Center was launched in June as part of Facebook’s attempt to be more relevant to mobile users and help them find apps they like for their smartphones. The app initiative isn’t meant to direct users to Facebook-only apps, but mobile apps in general: It launched with 600, including popular ones like Instagram, GoodReads, and Pinterest. And it’s clear the initiative is working for the social network.

Facebook isn’t directing people to buy or download apps from Apple and Google out of the goodness of its heart, however. The iOS and Android apps that are offered in App Center have Facebook integration — meaning users can sign into them on their phones via Facebook and can share them in their News Feed — which increases Facebook’s own engagement with more users, especially in the mobile realm, an area in which the company has admitted it is struggling.

But this is also great news for users of Apple’s App Store, Google Play and developers. The sheer volume of apps available — 650,000 for iOS, 500,000 for Android — makes a chore out of surfacing quality apps or finding apps to suit individual preferences. There are many new, smaller companies trying to solve this problem by using combinations of curation and search algorithms. But Facebook, by picking and choosing a few hundred apps to offer its enormous mobile audience, is offering another way to sift through the often-times overwhelming selection of apps in those stores.

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Facebook makes another mobile push, launches App Center

Eliza Kern — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 00:33:13 +0000

Facebook announced Thursday that it’s launching an app center for its mobile platform, allowing users to get personalized app recommendations on their phones through the Facebook app. The app center not only demonstrates the company’s close ties with third-party app developers, but also its desire to get serious about mobile.

Facebook’s app store will let users download Facebook-integrated apps for both the iOS and Android platforms, including popular apps like Instagram, Pinterest, Nike+ GPS and Draw Something. The app center will launch with more than 600 different apps.

Facebook has seen huge success letting third-party developers build games and social apps on Facebook.com using Facebook’s API. According to the company, more than 230 million people play games on Facebook every month, and more than 130 of those games have more than 1 million monthly active users.

Kyusik Chung, vice president for business development with GoodReads, says integration with Facebook has been critical for his app’s success in attracting new users. GoodReads, which allows users to rate and recommend books they’re reading with friends online, launched their integration with the Facebook timeline in January, with huge success:

“We get a ton of mobile users who find us through Facebook,” Chung said. “It enriches and expands our universal life.”

The Facebook app center will give users personalized recommendations on which apps they should download, and shows which ones a users’s Facebook friends have downloaded, adding a social dimension to the center.

The app center will be available on the Facebook app for iPhone and Android as well as the on the social network’s mobile website.

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How Facebook App Center is aiding iOS, Android app discovery

Facebook makes another mobile push, launches App Center