STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- Facebook App Center starting with 600 "high-quality" apps, social network says
- While most remain free, developers can offer paid apps for the first time
- Move creates more competition with the likes of Apple, Google and Amazon
The Facebook App Center
gives users a one-stop shop for Draw Something, Instagram, Pinterest
and hundreds of other apps that run on the social-media mega-site.
In all, the center, which
began rolling out Friday to users in the United States, will open with
about 600 apps available. And, for the first time, Facebook will be
offering paid apps as well as free ones from the center.
The center will be available on the Web and on Apple's iOS and Google's Android operating systems.According to Facebook,
the center will offer personalized suggestions to users based on their
interests and will only include "high-quality apps" based on feedback
from people who use them.
"Many developers have
been successful with in-app purchases, but to support more types of apps
on Facebook.com, we will give developers the option to offer paid
apps," Facebook's Adam Brady wrote.
Many of the apps featured
in the App Center are already available on Facebook (although the site
expects new ones to spring up). But with the App Center, users will be
able to browse for new ones instead of randomly discovering them.
The social-media site
said the ratings and targeting will help users spend less time weeding
through low-quality apps to find the ones they really want.
Facebook makes about 15%
of its money through payments in games and other apps, according to
filings when the site went public. Zynga, owner of FarmVille, Draw
Something and other successful games, is responsible for the majority of
those payments. Facebook takes a 30% cut.
Each app will have a detail page that will be found in Web searches and give potential users information about the app.
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