Facebook on Friday launched yet another app store
that consumers will be able to choose from, only this one provides them with apps that are centered around Facebook itself. Taking a quick cruise around the App Center, currently only available for American users, shows that Facebook already has most of the usual suspects available, including Pinterest, Draw Something, FarmVille, Instagram, Angry Birds, and so on. So why does Facebook feel that it needs to add another app store to its market? In an interview with PC Magazine, Facebook director of developer products Douglas Purdy said that the App Center would provide Facebook with even more information on its users that could then be used to sell ever-more targeted ads.
“We are largely an advertising company, and we continue to make our money that way,” Purdy said. “Now the more applications that people use, that are social, that they share, of course that benefits us. It means that we can sponsor those stories, it means that we’re better in our ads and marketing. And that’s really what that’s about for us.”
In other words, anyone who plays “Sorority Life” through Facebook’s App Center can expect to be bombarded with J-Crew and Abercrombie ads.
