SAN FRANCISCO — Facebook f8 Event, May 24, 2007 — Facebook, the Internet’s leading social utility, today announced more than 65 developer partners have built applications on Facebook Platform, a new development platform that enables companies and engineers to integrate with the Facebook website and gain access to millions of users. Executives from Amazon.com, Microsoft and Slide joined Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to introduce their applications onstage at “f8,” an event hosted by Facebook for more than 750 developers and industry leaders.
Facebook users communicate and share information through the social graph, the network of connections and relationships between people. More than 50 percent of Facebook users return to the site each day, providing unparalleled distribution potential for applications and the opportunity to build a business that is highly relevant to people’s lives.
Facebook and Amazon.com teamed up to develop an application called “Book Reviews” that lets Facebook users write and display book reviews on their profile pages. Facebook users can then click on the “Buy at Amazon” button to go to Amazon.com and complete their purchase. Facebook and Amazon.com built this application using the Amazon E- Commerce Service that enables Amazon Associates to incorporate Amazon.com product data and shopping technology into their applications and in turn, help more people discover Amazon.com’s selection. The Amazon E-commerce Service is available from Amazon Web Services. Amazon.com and Facebook are working on additional applications that let Facebook users share and discover more products they love from Amazon.com. “Amazon.com is pleased to be working with Facebook to develop exciting new applications using the Amazon E-Commerce Service from Amazon Web Services,” said Russ Grandinetti, vice president, Amazon.com. “With the Book Reviews application that will be released this week, Facebook users will be able to review, share and discover books they love with their friends, making their experience using Facebook more interesting and interactive. We’re looking forward to working with Facebook to build many new and exciting applications for their users.”
Microsoft’s Popfly is a web-based tool that gives Facebook users the power to create applications and add them to their profiles with no programming at all. For instance, users can create and embed mashups of websites directly in their profiles. “The partnership between Microsoft and Facebook opens up exciting new opportunities that allow anyone to build dynamic, interactive applications using the Facebook social graph,” said Dan’l Lewin, corporate vice president, Strategic and Emerging Business Development, Microsoft Corp.
“Microsoft has long been committed to empowering developers of all levels. Popfly and Visual Studio Express enable a broad new audience to experience the power of development.” Slide has tailored its most popular applications to be integrated into Facebook users’ profiles. These include Slide Shows for publishing and viewing personal photo slideshows; Slide SkinFlix for personalizing video clips with skins and themes; Slide Guestbook, an application for friends to contribute their own photos, videos and more. “Facebook’s f8 platform is a fundamental development in social computing,” said Max Levchin, founder and CEO, Slide. “Opening Facebook’s vibrant social fabric to third-party applications creates enormous product opportunities for developers of every size, from an industry leader like Slide to a college student with a few hours to spare. Facebook becomes an operating system for the people, built by the people.”
Other developer partners which have built applications on Facebook Platform include: 30 Boxes; All Widgets, LLC; Amazon.com; Attendio; Bitnik; Blue Nile; Box.net; Bunchball; Channels.com; Chumby Industries; CollegeHumor; Digg, Dogster Inc.; EF Tours; Ether; Fantasy Moguls; FASHION FOR THE PEOPLE; FeedBurner, Inc.; Fliptrack, Inc.; Forbes.com; FORD MODELS; Glimpse.com; HOT or NOT; iLike, inc; Jangl; Jaxtr; Jobster; Lending Club; LocalPlatform LLC; Microsoft Corp.; MOG; Mosoto; Obama for America; Oodle; Photobucket, Inc.; Photojojo; Pickspal; Platial; Plum; Project Agape; Prosper.com; QOOP, Inc.; Radar; Rapleaf; Red Bull Energy Drink; RockYou!; Rupture; Scrapblog; Scribd; SideStep, Inc.; Slide; Snapvine, Inc.; SplashCast, Inc.; TERRALEVER; Twitter, Inc.; Uber; uPlayMe; Veoh Networks, Inc.; viagogo; VIRGIN MOBILE USA; Warner Bros. Records; Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive; Widgetbox; and YackPack.