Five years ago Facebook announced the Facebook Developer Platform and since it was announced at the 2007 f8 conference with 70 app developers the program has sky rocketed in use. In fact one year after it was first revealed the program already had 30,000 apps.
Adding to Facebook’s reach was the Connect platform in 2008, the first glimpse into third-party website integration for the company.
Eventually we were treated to the Facebook “Like” button, tons of games from the likes of Zynga and the Open Graph.
Fast forward to 2012 and the Facebook developer platform has created more than 182,000 American jobs with an economic value of $12.19 billion.
Throw in Facebook Timeline which is hated by many users but offers the potential for even closer app development integration and its easy to see why Facebook continues its meteoric rise, even as people complain about privacy issues and other Facebook missteps.
From major app development firms (Disney, EA Sports), to mom-and-pop startups the Facebook developer eco-system is helping raise millions of dollars in venture capitalist funds while spawning an entire generation of new developers and new thought processes surrounding how apps are built for the internet.
Here’s the Facebook Developer platform infographic courtesy of Mashable.com:
What do you think the Facebook Developer Platform must do next to continue its positive track record of success?
