Facebook Expands Preferred Developer Program
March 9, 2010
Four months ago, Facebook launched something called the Preferred Developer Consultant Program in an effort to point companies and celebrities towards the best developers. Now, the program's taking an important leap forward as Facebook's more than tripled the number of recommended developers.
Facebook started things off with just 14 developers, which seemed like an interesting choice. Those dozen or so developers couldn't possibly design too many Facebook pages and/or apps, after all, so was demand negligible? Were great developers extremely rare? Or did Facebook just feel like causing a crazy bidding war for people's services?
Today, the social network granted 35 additional developers "preferred" status, making the situation look somewhat manageable.
Kristin Thayer, a member of the Facebook Developer Network team, also explained that the global community's needs have been taken into consideration. She wrote on the Facebook Developer Blog, "Over half of the new Preferred Developer Consultants have international operations and have already built campaigns, community portals, and other social applications in countries like Israel, Lithuania, and Czech Republic."
Thayer added, as well, "If you or your company builds high quality Facebook Connect implementations, Facebook applications, and/or Facebook Pages, and is interested in being included as a developer consultant in this program, please visit the Developer FAQ to learn more about submitting your company for consideration."
Facebook Expands Preferred Developer Program
March 9, 2010
Four months ago, Facebook launched something called the Preferred Developer Consultant Program in an effort to point companies and celebrities towards the best developers. Now, the program's taking an important leap forward as Facebook's more than tripled the number of recommended developers.
Facebook started things off with just 14 developers, which seemed like an interesting choice. Those dozen or so developers couldn't possibly design too many Facebook pages and/or apps, after all, so was demand negligible? Were great developers extremely rare? Or did Facebook just feel like causing a crazy bidding war for people's services?
Today, the social network granted 35 additional developers "preferred" status, making the situation look somewhat manageable.
Kristin Thayer, a member of the Facebook Developer Network team, also explained that the global community's needs have been taken into consideration. She wrote on the Facebook Developer Blog, "Over half of the new Preferred Developer Consultants have international operations and have already built campaigns, community portals, and other social applications in countries like Israel, Lithuania, and Czech Republic."
Thayer added, as well, "If you or your company builds high quality Facebook Connect implementations, Facebook applications, and/or Facebook Pages, and is interested in being included as a developer consultant in this program, please visit the Developer FAQ to learn more about submitting your company for consideration."
Facebook Investor Promises “No Near Term IPO”
January 26, 2010
Believe it or not, the stock market's not looking too terrible these days; the Nasdaq's risen almost 12.5 percent in the last six months, and just shy of 50.0 percent in the last year. Still, it seems that Facebook absolutely will not go public in 2010.
Accel Partners and DST are two of Facebook's biggest financial backers, and at the Digital, Life, Design Conference in Munich, one man from each organization spoke about the social network's prospects. They're both taking a very relaxed (yet careful) approach.
Jim Breyer, a managing partner at Accel, said according to Rafat Ali, "I am happy to announce that there will be no near term IPO on Facebook; this means 2010. For them, it is all about getting the product and team right."
Yuri Milner, CEO and Founding Partner of DST, then added, "We have permanent capital, we don't have to return money to investors, so we have unlimited patience. We want to have the vision follow-through. It is up to the board and management to make the call."
This puts Facebook at least somewhat in line with Twitter, which has also ruled out a 2010 IPO. Now we'll just have to start keeping an ear out for its plan regarding next year.
Have You Read This?
> Twitter COO Effectively Rules Out 2010 IPO
> Facebook Stock Manuever Feeds IPO Rumors
> (Private) Facebook Shares Up 42% In Four Months
Facebook Stock Maneuver Feeds IPO Rumors
November 25, 2009
Consider yourself forewarned: the official line is that "Facebook has no plans to go public at this time." Just the same, a financial maneuver the company's performing has raised a few eyebrows since it seems to point towards that possibility.
Jessica E. Vascellaro reported this afternoon, "The company is in the process of converting all current shareholders to Class B stock, which carries ten times the voting power of Class A stock . . . . Those shares will remain Class B shares unless the owner sells them during an initial public offering, at which time they will become Class A shares . . ."
This sort of exercise helps ensure that existing stockholders retain control of a company regardless of what happens on an open market. In Facebook's case, Mark Zuckerberg, who owns many, many shares, would benefit most. (Important note: It's not necessarily an "evil" move, though, as Google did the same sort of thing for the sake of Sergey Brin, Larry Page, and Eric Schmidt.)
So what we have here is one more piece of evidence (remember the preexisting enthusiasm surrounding its stock?) that Facebook could be headed towards an IPO.
Even if Facebook doesn't have definite plans to go public, the recession at least hasn't completely scared the company away from the idea, then.
Have You Read This?
> (Private) Facebook Shares Up 42% In Four Months
> Facebook Catapults Into Third Place Among Video Sites
> Facebook Most Widely Used Network Among Businesses
