Facebook spends $20 mn worth benefits to groom Indian app developers through FbStart

Of 5k developers on FbStart, 1k from Asia Pacific and 40% from India

Indian techies have gained about $20 million worth of benefits from Facebook’s app developing platform FbStart, the social media giant said in Bengaluru on Tuesday.

“Of the $50 million in benefits distributed to Asia Pacific start-ups through FbStart, over $20 million went to start-ups in India,” Facebook said in a blogspot as it hosted its FbStart programme for app developers in the city. This was the first time the programme was hosted in India.

Of the 5,000 app developers on FbStart, about 1,000 are from Asia Pacific area and 40 per cent are from India, said Ime Archibong, director of product partnerships, Facebook. “India is its largest app developer community from outside of US. More than 75 per cent of top-grossing apps in India are integrated with Facebook,” he added.

FbStart is a programme started in 2014 to help mobile app developers build and grow their start-ups. The platform offers mentorship from Facebook’s product managers, engineers and other various partnerships people. As the programme completed a year in May, Facebook had stated in a blogpost that it had distributed about $100 million in benefits to about 3,800 participating start-ups since its launch.

Talking about Indian app developers, Archibong said they are more oriented towards developing solutions for solving various problems faced by developing countries like India. He quoted the example of Socialblood, a start-up founded by US-based Rutgers University dropout Karthik Naralasetty in 2011, which is engaged in building the largest network of blood donors, hospitals and blood banks on the web.

Delhi-based Cardback and Hyderabad-based Samosa are among the various Indian start-ups in the app developing space that have already leveraged the FbStart platform. While Cardback is a payment recommendation platform that helps credit, debit, prepaid cardholders and mobile wallet users make smarter payment decisions, Samosa offers a curated collection of clips from popular movies that people can share with their friends.

FbStart’s tools and services have helped these teams focus on building their app, rather than spending precious time searching and deciding which services to use to fulfil their needs.