Facebook’s App Center, unveiled Thursday night, initially features more than 600 social applications for both Web and mobile platforms.
Prior to the App Center, Facebook did not sell the apps but simply linked to the original stores. The new App Center filters apps and then gives recommendation for smartphone users, also showing what your friends are using now.
“We are largely an advertising company, and we continue to make our money that way. Now the more applications that people use, that are social, that they share, of course that benefits us,” said Facebook’s director of developer products Doug Purdy.
“It means that we can sponsor those stories, it means that we're better in our ads and marketing. And that's really what that's about for us."
Stitcher Radio, Nike+ GPS, Draw Something, Ubisoft Ghost Recon Commander, and Pinterest are available in this App Center. All of the apps in the initial launch are free, but Facebook may add paid apps later.
At the end of March, the social network giant had more than 900 million monthly regular users. Based on the company’s claim, there are more than 230 million users playing games on Facebook every month. Facebook users visited the Apple App Store 83 million times last month and to iOS apps 134 million times, the according to the company.
"Facebook is a growth engine and the App Center is another addition to that growth engine," said Purdy.
