Mike Arrington is reporting that Facebook has devoted zero resources to building an application for Android. Why exactly? Well much of it has to do with the bad blood between Google and Facebook sparked when Facebook banned Google’s Friend Connect earlier this year. Looks like things are not so pretty.
Other reasons for arguing? Well, a little company called Microsoft is the one that won rights to Facebook’s ad inventory. This agreement is similar to the one that Google signed with MySpace. Honestly, what is essentially a childish fight has erupted into bad business practice. As a platform and a product, Facebook’s goal is to expand access to any communications device.
Unfortunately they are deciding to not build for a platform which will soon be on millions of mobile devices. If Facebook was building their own mobile platform, I would totally understand them not wanting to build for others. Then again, Apple has been successful by building their iTunes product for Windows, a competing platform.
When Facebook decides to cut themselves off from accessing millions of individuals because they don’t like the other platform, they are missing out on a huge opportunity. The bottom line is this is bad business and Facebook should most definitely suck it up and hop on the new platform. Otherwise MySpace is going to have no problem picking up some of the slack.
Thanks Nick! I agree, your last paragraph hits the mark.
Comment by Harold Cabezas — October 22, 2008 @ 9:17 pm
google and facebook are not in the same league.
Comment by anon — October 22, 2008 @ 10:43 pm
Android has yet to prove itself as a mobile platform, any investment in an application for it is a risk at this point and must be weighed by a business considering development as such.
This is probably the real reason Facebook has not invested in it. Granted, I'm speculating here, but no more so than Nick is above when he says this is about bad blood between Google and Facebook (as long as he provides no references to back that claim up).
The iPhone, in contrast, was an established mobile platform with a larger userbase by the time Facebook was even able to build an application for it. Not to mention the iPhone Facebook app isn't that useful. I still find myself switching over to the mobile version in Safari, or even the full version.
Comment by Nick — October 24, 2008 @ 11:49 am
I go to http://iphone.facebook.com in my G1 browser, works fine.
Comment by G1 User — November 4, 2008 @ 1:38 pm
[...] month we wrote that there won’t be any Facebook Android application coming anytime soon. The reason is that the company has put no resources toward [...]
Pingback by A Facebook Application Launches on Android — November 14, 2008 @ 11:27 am