Facebook’s New App Center: Everything You Need to Know

Facebook’s upcoming App Center may look a lot like the Apple App Store and Google Play, but it’s not exactly their competitor.
Instead of selling apps that integrate with Facebook, the new App Center will refer users to other app stores where they can buy them.
Confused? You’re not the only one. After Facebook announced the new feature on Wednesday, “I don’t get it” was a common response.
We’ve answered below some of the most common questions about how the App Center will work, what apps it will contain and why Facebook built it. Let us know if you have another question we missed.

So Facebook is going to have an app store now?
Yes, but not in the same sense that Google and Apple have app stores. What Facebook has announced is more of an app showcase. In addition to apps built on Facebook, it includes apps that use Facebook Login, regardless of whether they’re iOS, Android or web apps.
Does that mean I can buy iOS and Android apps on Facebook?
No. Though you will find iOS and Android apps in the App Center, you will be directed to Apple’s App Store or Google Play to actually download the apps.
Facebook announced on Wednesday that it will allow developers to charge for “apps built on Facebook” for the first time, but is not clear whether users will purchase apps directly from the App Center.
What are “apps built on Facebook,” and how are they different than iOS and Android apps that integrate with Facebook?
Apps built on Facebook are web apps viewed and used within the Facebook site. They get a special page within Facebook where they load. On the other hand, apps with Facebook integrations such as Draw Something and Pinterest are built on external platforms, but they interface with Facebook for login and other social features.
Couldn’t I spend money on apps built on Facebook before?
Yes. Previously, Facebook has allowed in-app purchases within these apps, but it has not allowed developers to charge for apps themselves.
Social game maker Zynga, for example, has previously been able to charge for items like blueberries or game advantages within Farmville. Now it will have the option to charge for Farmville itself.
How will I access Facebook’s App Center?
Facebook’s App Center will launch on the web as well as within the iOS and Android Facebook apps.
What will the App Center Look Like?
It will look a lot like Google Play or the Apple App Store. Each app will have a detail page, which includes a five-star user-rating system. A screenshot of the prototype that Facebook engineer Aaron Brady included in a blog post about the center includes sections for recommended apps, friends’ apps, top apps, trending apps and top-grossing apps.
“We use a variety of signals, such as user ratings and engagement, to determine if an app is listed in the App Center,” Brady wrote.
Hasn’t Facebook launched something like this before?
Sort of. When Facebook first launched Facebook apps in 2007, there was a dedicated applications area where users could browse apps from third-party developers. Users currently locate Facebook apps through the same search bar they use to find people, groups and events.
Why would Facebook launch something like this?
As Brady put it in his blog post, “The App Center is designed to grow mobile apps that use Facebook — whether they’re on iOS, Android or the mobile web.”
Facebook wants developers to build mobile apps that integrate it. Reaching Facebook’s 900 million users through the App Center is another incentive for them to do so.
The showcase also encourages makes it easier to discover apps built on Facebook, many of which integrate Facebook’s payment system Credits. All games built on Facebook are required to use Facebook Credits to accept payments (except when they’re running on iOS), and Facebook takes a takes a 30% cut of all purchases made with Facebook Credits. That’s why as of February Zynga accounted for 12% of the social network’s revenue.
Facebook will also presumably take a 30% cut of the purchase price for upcoming paid apps built on Facebook.

12:12 by Robert dawne · 1

How One Startup Led to Another

You might call Raad Mobrem, 25, a serial accidental entrepreneur. As a senior at the University of California Santa Barbara, he and fellow classmates Chase McElroy and Jonathan Luna Rivera, who were in an entrepreneurship class together, came up with an idea for a new kind of durable dog toy as part of a class project. As it turned out, the toy—a super-tough, Frisbee-like rubber disc that could double as a water dish—became the foundation for a bona fide pet products company called Durable Ideas.
That was back in 2009, and the company now has distribution in more than 1,600 retail locations. But with growth came a few pain points. One of them, says Mobrem, was sales and order processing.
“We had all these sales reps nationwide and they might visit 15 stores in any given day,” he says.  “They had to write the order forms for customers, go back home and then get the orders to us through e-mail or fax.”
Consolidating Tech Tools
And like most small businesses, Durable Ideas’ back-office systems included a variety of programs such as QuickBooks, Freshbooks, Salesforce, an online credit card processor and an inventory system—none of which talked to one another efficiently.
“We had all these different systems and we had to take data and input it into each one,” he says. “And this process got really, really annoying.”
Not to mention time consuming, to the point that the company’s inside sales people were spending more time doing paperwork than selling.  It was an “ah-ha” moment for Mobrem.
“I thought we could create a centralized hub that integrates with all the back-end systems and integrate it with e-commerce,” Mobrem says. With Durable Ideas’ tech wizard Frank Jones,  Mobrem went to work on an iPad app that would do just that. Three and a half months later, they had developed an app that was bare bones but serviceable enough to bring to trade shows, where they used it to take orders. And then something unexpected happened.
“Companies said ‘What the heck are you doing on the iPad?’ and they begged us for the app,” says Mobrem.  “And then we got all these phone calls from people wanting to buy our solution, which was not for sale.”
Capitalizing on a Great Idea
Mobrem, fascinated by this unforeseen interest in the app, decided to do more market research. So he attended a few trade shows outside the pet industry, talking about the app to whoever would give him a few minutes. “Every one of them said ‘I need this,'” he says. In the meantime, the app had proven itself at Durable Ideas by dramatically reducing order fulfillment times from up to four days to just a couple of hours. Cash flow also improved by 35 percent, and sales increased 5 to 10 percent.
So in late 2010, Mobrem and Jones left their full time positions at Durable Ideas to start a new company to develop the app, which they named Lettuce. A meeting with venture capitalist Mark Suster of GRP Partners landed the company acceptance into startup accelerator Launchpad LA, in which Suster is a mentor. Private beta users have run approximately $500,000 in orders through the app, and Mobrem plans to make the app available at Apple’s App Store in the near future. When the private beta ends in late May, he’ll begin charging $29 to $119 per month per user.
“Our vision is really in line with the statement ‘Imagine if Apple designed apps for small businesses,’” says Mobrem. “In the long term, we want to be the place where small businesses can go to find great applications to run their whole business.”

08:42 by Robert dawne · 0