Facebook Makes Its Move: Brings Viral Channels to HTML5, iOS Apps
Facebook finally unveiled its long-awaited effort to help mobile developers market their native and HTML5-based apps through its platform today. iOS developers will get to take advantage of bookmarks, requests and the news feed in the same way that Facebook canvas developers do.
The interesting parts of today’s launch are:
Facebook is playing nice with Apple on viral distribution for native iOS apps, not just HTML5-based ones: If a developer wants to distribute a native application, Facebook’s notifications will send prospective users to the iTunes app store.
So Facebook is not pressuring developers to build HTML5 apps in order to use its viral channels. This is a big deal because the HTML5-requirement was perceived as a hurdle for adoption of Facebook’s mobile platform. Both indie and mid-size developers have difficulty splitting their resources between building natively and on HTML5. Furthermore, there’s still a noticeable performance disparity between native and HTML5 applications — especially with games, which are the largest revenue driver on both platforms.
It’s unclear if Facebook will get affiliate revenue for the downloads it drives of paid apps. Apple pays a 5 percent commission for referrals in its iTunes affiliate program. Other earlier mobile-social gaming networks like OpenFeint derived a nominal amount of revenue from this, but the volume of installs Facebook will drive is likely to be much larger. A Facebook spokesperson says, “Our policy is not to discuss such details.”
Parallel viral channels on Android will be coming soon. There’s no official date though.
Facebook Credits have arrived for mobile web apps (as was widely anticipated): HTML5 developers that want to use Credits as their payment mechanism must use it exclusively. Native iOS apps have to use Apple’s payment system, however. This split in payments between web-based and native apps is expected given that Apple is unlikely to give up revenue from in-app payments and paid downloads.
We were the first to report that Facebook might use an HTML5 platform as a way to extend Credits to mobile back in February, four months before any mainstream outlets wrote about it. And we also correctly reported the launch date as three weeks away from f8 while other blogs incorrectly said this would launch last week at Apple’s event.
And here are the key viral channels for mobile developers:
Requests: This may be the most effective new viral channel for iOS developers launching today. If a user gets a request from a friend to join an app, they can respond to it from their iPhone. Then they’ll be sent to either the app’s mobile website or to the iTunes store where they can download the native version.
News Feed: Users can click on news feed items and be directed to the HTML5-based app or the iTunes store, where they’ll be able to download the native version.
Bookmarks: Like on the web, users will get to save bookmarks for apps they use. If users tap on a bookmark, Facebook’s iPhone or iPad app will launch the app if it’s installed or they will send the user to the iTunes store. (Given that bookmarks are already buried one layer deep in the Facebook app, we suspect users might be more inclined to launch apps directly from their phone.)
October 10th, 2011 at 1:05 pm
[...] the iPad app available, Facebook today also announced the launch of its mobile application platform, which you can read more about here. Users will be able to access third-party apps and games from [...]
October 10th, 2011 at 1:19 pm
I like facebook’s shift to html5. The more sites move to html5, the better.
October 10th, 2011 at 1:28 pm
“there’s still a noticeable performance disparity between iOS and native applications” … Do you mean to say HTML5 for one of those?
October 10th, 2011 at 2:16 pm
[...] wird der Launch der App mit dem Startschuss von Facebooks ebenfalls seit längerer Zeit erwarteter, HTML5-basierter mobiler App-Plattform.Facebooks aufgefrischte mobile Website (m.facebook.com) wird nach der üblichen Rollout-Phase [...]
October 10th, 2011 at 3:33 pm
[...] if already installed, or the App Store is loaded so users can download it. Bookmarks to web apps on Facebook’s new mobile app platform are launched within Facebook for iPhone’s internal browser, and users merely need to confirm [...]
October 10th, 2011 at 4:50 pm
[...] Facebook Makes Its Move: Brings Viral Channels to HTML5, iOS Apps. Share and Enjoy: カテゴリー: iPad 作成者: TTKMNT パーマリンク [...]
October 10th, 2011 at 6:48 pm
[...] developers released new Facebook-integrated mobile web apps today to coincide with the launch of Facebook’s mobile application platform. The Huffington Post, Flixster, AudioVroom and others provide an early showcase of the potential of [...]
October 11th, 2011 at 1:13 am
[...] is most remarkable is how Facebook is going to impact on what we call “app discovery”. It matters because it both allow you to [...]
October 11th, 2011 at 3:20 am
[...] Facebookモバイルのクロスプラットホームな統合において、デベロッパの居心地を良くするための最大の措置はたぶん、ブックマーク(Bookmarks)だ。それによりユーザは、Facebookモバイルの中からアプリにナビゲートできるからだ。だから、アプリをヴァイラルに広めたいデベロッパにとっては、願ってもないブックマークである。私もすでに、ブックマークにあったからという理由だけで、iOSアプリを一つダウンロードしてしまった(“Words With Friends”)。こうやってアプリをダウンロードしやすくしたのは、将来はアフィリエイト料金を取りたいというFacebookの魂胆があるのかな。Facebookは広報担当などの社員たちに、”ポリシーの詳細は話すな”と言ってるようだけど。 [...]
October 11th, 2011 at 8:59 am
[...] InsideMobileApps Tags: Facebook, html5, Project [...]
October 11th, 2011 at 9:14 am
[...] Via IMA [...]
October 13th, 2011 at 2:55 pm
[...] like China’s PapayaMobile and Heyzap. Then there’s the elephant in the room: Facebook, which launched viral channels for HTML5 and native iOS apps this week. Android should be coming shortly, the company says. And Google could also always pull Google+ out [...]
October 17th, 2011 at 2:11 pm
[...] week after Facebook’s launch of viral channels for third-party mobile apps, the amount of traffic the social network is driving to individual HTML5-based titles seems to be [...]
October 18th, 2011 at 12:34 pm
[...] week, the company finally opened up viral channels to both iOS and HTML5 mobile developers, which could make it much easier for apps to acquire users cheaply. It could help make Facebook a [...]
October 19th, 2011 at 5:56 pm
[...] week, the Facebook finally opened up viral channels to both iOS and HTML5 mobile developers, which could make it much easier for apps to acquire users cheaply. To push its nascent mobile [...]
October 21st, 2011 at 1:34 pm
[...] recently launched its mobile app platform that allows users to access canvas apps built in HTML5 from their mobile devices. Page tab [...]
October 21st, 2011 at 6:42 pm
[...] for all Facebook games on the web, a payment option for Facebook apps, and became available as a payment option to mobile app developers last week. The only initial launch partner for “Facebook Credits for Websites” will be [...]
October 24th, 2011 at 3:22 pm
[...] developers could (and still can) choose whether or not to use them. Then, Facebook began allowing mobile app developers to process payments with Credits earlier this [...]
October 25th, 2011 at 11:23 am
[...] Alto on October 28th. The event will cover iOS, Android, and HTML5 mobile web development for the new Facebook mobile app Platform. It will feature: “technical deep-dives, a Q&A, partner presentations, and an opportunity [...]
October 25th, 2011 at 8:31 pm
[...] for gaming apps on Facebook as of July 1 and an option for other Facebook apps. It recently extended credits to mobile app developers who want to build HTML5 apps on its mobile platform. It was also allowing people to pay using [...]
November 9th, 2011 at 1:09 pm
[...] frame-rate issues that present challenges for game developers. Facebook recently launched its own mobile platform with support for HTML5 games from a test pool of established mobile and social game [...]
November 16th, 2011 at 8:04 am
[...] These are the kind of more targeted recommendations both companies will have to offer as more powerful players like Facebook threaten to create new and competitive viral distribution channels on iOS and Android for m… [...]
December 22nd, 2011 at 7:45 pm
[...] games. Developer adoption has been a bit sluggish, though. The opening of this viral channel, first announced in October with the platform’s launch, could convince developers to experiment with Facebook [...]
December 22nd, 2011 at 8:02 pm
[...] games. Developer adoption has been a bit sluggish, though. The opening of this viral channel, first announced in October with the platform’s launch, could convince developers to experiment with Facebook mobile. Read [...]
December 22nd, 2011 at 8:07 pm
[...] games. Developer adoption has been a bit sluggish, though. The opening of this viral channel, first announced in October with the platform’s launch, could convince developers to experiment with Facebook [...]
December 22nd, 2011 at 10:02 pm
[...] games. Developer adoption has been a bit sluggish, though. The opening of this viral channel, first announced in October with the platform’s launch, could convince developers to experiment with Facebook [...]
December 23rd, 2011 at 8:14 am
[...] games. Developer adoption has been a bit sluggish, though. The opening of this viral channel, first announced in October with the platform’s launch, could convince developers to experiment with Facebook [...]
December 30th, 2011 at 12:11 pm
[...] Facebook Makes Its Move: Brings Viral Channels to HTML5, iOS Apps – October 10th [...]
January 9th, 2012 at 12:03 am
[...] so much funding behind it, it put much of its chips into the launch of Facebook’s HTML5-centric mobile platform this [...]
February 8th, 2012 at 1:13 pm
[...] opened its mobile platform to third-party developers in October 2011. It currently uses Boku to process mobile phone payments [...]
February 24th, 2012 at 1:10 pm
[...] the News Feed, authenticated referrals and Facebook credits to its mobile apps, opening the way for greater discoverability on the [...]
March 1st, 2012 at 9:08 am
[...] they have it or the right page in the iTunes store or Android Market for downloading it. Facebook first unveiled these mobile channels back in October, but they were just for iOS and mobile web [...]
March 1st, 2012 at 9:22 am
[...] they have it or the right page in the iTunes store or Android Market for downloading it. Facebook first unveiled these mobile channels back in October, but they were just for iOS and mobile web [...]
April 2nd, 2012 at 8:10 am
[...] Dash was one of the first games that really made use of Facebook’s new viral channels for native mobile… after they launched last October. So it’s an important litmus test in seeing how marketing [...]
April 17th, 2012 at 11:26 pm
[...] esimerkkinä toimii Facebookin lokakuussa julkistama HTML5 kielellä tehty natiivi iOS-sovellus. Käyttäjä ei sovellusta käyttäessään huomaa eroa perinteisen sovelluksen ja uuden www-sivuun [...]
May 1st, 2012 at 2:43 pm
[...] mobile platform allows HTML5 and native iOS and Android apps to get distribution through News Feed, bookmarks and requests. When users [...]
May 2nd, 2012 at 8:33 am
[...] mobile platform allows HTML5 and native iOS and Android apps to get distribution through News Feed, bookmarks and requests. When users [...]