Facebook gives benefits worth $20 mn to Indian developers

Social networking giant Facebook has distributed benefits worth $20 million to developers in India, its second largest market globally to help them build and monetise apps.

Under its FbStart initiative that was started last year, the US-based firm has provided free tools and services worth $50 million to help developers in the Asia Pacific region.

"Developers are an important part of our ecosystem. We have grown from a small size and we know the hurdles that developers can face while developing products," Ime Archibong, director, product platform partnerships, Facebook told PTI.

Through this initiative, Facebook wants to help take care of certain aspects, so that the developers can focus on building world-class products, he said.

Archibong added that India is an important market since the country has the second highest number of developers after the US under the FBStart initiative.

"More developers are building apps with Facebook in India than any other country outside the US and today, more than 75 per cent of top-grossing apps in India are integrated with Facebook," he said.

Out of $50 million in benefits distributed to Asia Pacific startups through FbStart, more than $20 million went to startups in India, Archibong added. Delhi-based app Cardback and Hyderabad's Samosa that offers a curated collection of clips from popular movies were among the beneficiaries.

In Asia, Facebook has more than 1,000 members as part of the FbStart programme.

Facebook has started its FbStart World Tour, an event series across 20 cities to meet mobile developers across the world.

It has held events in London, New York, Mexico City, Hong Kong, Seoul and Taipei. In India, it is hosting these events in Bangalore and Gurgaon.

"With millions of people still not yet connected to the Internet in India and around the world, there is a huge opportunity for mobile developers to build some of the first experiences people have with the Internet," he said.

Archibong said that through programmes like FbStart and Internet.org that opened its platform to developers, Facebook aims to help build better mobile experiences that demonstrate the power of Internet.