SAN FRANCISCO — It isn't exactly sexy — like a flashy photo feature or reimagining of the Facebook design — but the social-networking giant fixated Wednesday on what it considers essential to its long-term health: the development of apps to draw and keep users.
"We want to build, grow and monetize your apps," Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told about 2,500 here at the first major Facebook developers' conference in more than two years.
STORY: Facebook adds privacy features to log-ins
It also managed to sneak in a product: Facebook unfurled a new version of Facebook Login, with improved privacy controls and a new way to log in anonymously to apps without sharing personal information with developers.
SHINAL: Facebook shares more power with users, wealth with developers
The last time Facebook held such a summit, in September 2011, it debuted Timeline, a bold refresh of its profile interface.
At the F8 confab here, Zuckerberg intends to change the perception that Facebook has been indifferent save for collaborations with select software makers such as Zynga. Most programmers have opted to build apps for smartphones instead of for Facebook.
"This is a different type of F8," said Zuckerberg, who added the conference will become an annual event.
Mobile is how Zuckerberg plans to appeal to the developer community. After all, it is where 1 billion of Facebook's 1.28 billion users view the social-networking site. Mobile advertising, in particular, has fueled Facebook's revenue and elevated its stock price to nearly $60 per share.
About 60% of Facebook's revenue comes via mobile ads.
As millions of consumers shop and communicate from their smartphones and tablets, major brands are plowing money into mobile ads. "This is the second and larger shift in advertising spend — the first being the shift to online advertising," says Ernie Cormier, CEO of Nexage, a leading premium mobile-advertising exchange. "Brands will increasingly use high-volume trading technology, called programmatic, to spend."
The focus on developers was evident on stage, which highlighted the work of Parse, acquired by Facebook a year ago. Over the past year, the number of apps built using Parse's tools more than tripled to 260,000.
Several mobile apps and features were spotlighted.
Facebook also debuted its own mobile ad network. It introduced the popular "Like" button for mobile users. And it announced a Messenger button for apps so people can share content privately with friends.
Facebook's focus on developers — not products — offered the latest evidence that it is a mature company intent on nurturing its ecosystem, says Ryan Johnson, vice president of mobile engineering at news site BuzzFeed. He pointed to App Links, a new program that lets people jump easily between mobile apps.
MORE DETAILS:USA TODAY
No comments:
Post a Comment