When people talk about the economic heft and weight of the app ecosystem [2], most think of mobile apps. But before mobile apps took hold with the iTunes App Store, Facebook opened up its platform in 2007 to third-party developers. Facebook's bet that its future lied in becoming a platform paid off, as it quickly left MySpace in its dust.
But how has the Facebook app ecosystem matured in the past five years?
EngineYard, a Platform as a Service vendor, has put together an infographic on the Facebook app economy [3]. The graphic takes stock of some of the lucrative businesses that have been built on Facebook's platform. One you may have heard of is Zynga [4]. The social gaming company grew so much through Facebook that it was able to pull off an initial public offering (IPO) at the end of 2011.
Here are a few stats on what the Facebook app economy has accomplished.
- 235,644 jobs have been created by the Facebook app economy.
- $1.65 billion is the amount of virtual goods expected to sold through Facebook in 2012.
- 20 million apps per day is the amount of apps installed by Facebook users every day.
Check out the full infographic on the Facebook app economy below.
