Facebook today announced the App Center, a new place for
people to find games and other apps. Through selling
paid apps, the company seeks to makes money from its
massive audience.
In the coming weeks, people will be able to access the
App Center on the web and in the iOS and Android
Facebook apps. All canvas, mobile and web apps that
follow the Facebook's guidelines can be listed there.
Everything app will include a detail page, which will
help Facebook's users install it before going to an app.
So all developers will have to create an app detail
page, required for being listed in the App Center.
The new App Center comes as the company is preparing an
initial public offering that would value the company
between $77 billion and $96 billion.
Users will need to use Facebook Credits, the company's
payment system, to purchase the apps and Facebook will
take a 30 percent cut of the revenue as it does with
in-app purchases, Facebook said.
According to the company, 200 of the apps that are
available on Facebook have more than 1 million users.
The App Center will feature apps that designed for PCs
as well as for mobile devices such as iPhones and
Android smartphones. If a mobile app requires
installation for the mobile device, Facebook said it
will direct users to Apple's App Store or Google 's Play
store to download the app.
Facebook will use a variety of signals to rate avery
app, such as user ratings and engagement, to determine
if an app is listed in the App Center. In order app
developers to monitor user feedback, Facebook will also
introduce a new app ratings metric in Insights to report
how users rate an app over time.
Each user will see a different, customized version of
the App Center, rather than one standard version of the
App Center.