Facebook announced Wednesday that it will launch an App Center.
Facebook's App Center will take after those of Apple's App Store and Google Play. The platform will create a hub for applications that are created specifically for Facebook or outside applications that are integrated with Facebook. There will be pages for each application that will include details and ratings for every app that is included in the Facebook App Center. Rather than the current system of searching for apps the same way a user would search for a person on Facebook, the new App Center will be specialized and focused solely on Facebook apps.
Aaron Brady of Facebook announced on Facebook's Developer Blog that the App Center will be released in a few weeks. This all seems convenient with Facebook's IPO coming out as early as next week. Facebook continues to announce new and improved features for the social network to increase excitement for their stock's release. A big knock on Facebook's IPO is their lack of revenue per user. This App Center will try to ease some of those concerns by including paid apps for the first time into Facebook. These apps will bring in some dough to Facebook's bottom line as they claim 30% of all application revenue with the remaining 70% staying with the app creator.
Many of these apps will be available solely through Facebook, as many of them are now. However, within the App Center you will be directed to Apple's App Store or Google Play, depending on operating system you are using, to download the specific app. This will happen when the app is only in the App Center because of its Facebook integration. This just means that the App Center will be a central location for Facebook apps but it will outsource the downloading of the apps since they are not actually Facebook's, just integrated with it.
There is a list of guidelines that developers must abide by to be included into the App Center. The most prominent is the fact that their app must have Facebook integration. This also is a revenue ploy for Facebook as they near their IPO. With more Facebook integration that creates more logins and time on the site by users which will spike its advertising prices as more eyes will see the ads for longer.
One final feature to the App Center is the app detail page. It is a page made by the app developer consisting of everything from images, more details about the app, and the ability to configure specific permissions. This is required for an app to be included in the App Center and the page also needs to follow certain guidelines laid out by Facebook.