Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) has taken over a cloud service company Parse, in a quest to step up from a consumer social network to a company providing business service. The services from Parse allow users to design mobile apps easily by getting the backup of hosted back end infrastructure. The acquisition of Parse puts Facebook in the business of selling application development tools.
“By making Parse a part of Facebook Platform, we want to enable developers to rapidly build apps that span mobile platforms and devices,” Douglas Purdy, Facebook’s director of product management, said in a blog post.
There are multiple services, which Parse provide to its users, like data storage and push notifications that help the developers to put their energy in developing the apps rather than having concerns about managing the servers and other back end infrastructure.
Parse offers service to its clients at three levels with different fee tags. The services are a free basic service, a “professional service” for $199 for a month and an “enterprise” service, which is customized according to the needs of enterprises.
According to Parse, the developers will be able to integrate their apps with the social networks including, currently, Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) and Twitter even more smoothly. Services of Parse can be utilized in developing the apps for iOS, Android, Windows Phone 8, Windows 8 and OS X, as well as in JavaScript.
The clients of Parse include big names like Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO), the Travel Channel, Cadillac, the Food Network and Emporio Armani. After the deal is concluded the companies who are using the services of Parse will have a new company to deal with, Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB). Alongside their will be new revenue stream for Facebook.
Ilya Sukhar, CEO, Parse said that the current apps, which have been designed, will not have any affect and that it is not necessary for the Pasre apps to use the Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) functionality. Parse is just two year old company and at present backs tens of thousands of apps according to CEO Sukhar. The CEO further said that deal with Facebook will help the company to build an ideal platform for developers.
Social networking giant, Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) said that the services provided by Parse will continue but did not comment on the issue that whether it will charge for providing the services. The amount of the deal was not known, but there are speculations that it is around $85 million in cash and stock.
