What’s in store – The Facebook App Center

Facebook

May 11, 2012

One major reason why people’s interest for Facebook has not diminished, unlike its predecessors, is because they ensure they are in the news all in time. I presume they target one major change a week, and at times, they end up releasing more than one! It seems that the ploy has worked for them till now.

One such major development, The Facebook App Center, has been announced. In the coming weeks, users in India will be able to access applications in the App Center that will be directed to the web, the iOS and the Android Facebook apps.

Here are some major effects of this move

For Facebook

Facebook will definitely please their stakeholders with this move. It will be an additional source of income with the standard 30% cut from paid apps sourced via The Facebook App Center, and will reduce the dominance of ad revenues from their total revenue.

For the developers

Developers will now be able to penetrate into the user base of Facebook and monetize their efforts effectively. Sources like Facebook’s share functionality, reviews on the Facebook App Center will help them achieve more visibility.

For the platforms

Google and iOS marketplaces will get more traffic too, since Facebook will merely surface social apps and then aim them at their marketplaces.

For India

So will it be a game changer in India for the application developers? Probably not immediately. For the users, it is a long fetched process to look for an app in the The Facebook App Center, direct to the respective app store and then download the application. Facebook occupies a different space in the ecosystem and it will take a lot of effort from them change a habit.

The herd effect, which Facebook has used effectively in the past to promote their new propositions (you would have seen a number of lists/friends/groups/game suggestions on Facebook), has definitely been very effective with Indian users, may be this can trigger a lot of attention for the applications too. Do share your thoughts too on how this will pan out.