Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB)’s initiative to help mobile developing startups financially is entering into the second year after disbursing more than $100 million to over 3,800 startups in the first year. The information was shared by the California based company on Thursday.
Facebook’s Mobile First Business Strategy
Facebook has always placed itself among those companies which don’t turn a blind eye on start-ups. With FbStart, it has not only helped the youngsters realizing their dreams, but also promoted its mobile first business strategy. The first year of FbStart was a huge success and helped the social media giant expending its developer community worldwide.
The best part about the FbStart initiative is that more than 60% of its members are located outside North American region. According to Kevin Prior, Product Marketing Manager, Facebook, the global reach of FbStart gives Facebook an edge over other social media companies. Prior stated in a blog post that Facebook launched FbStart with a small set of partners at F8 2014. The only objective that Facebook had at that time was to build up its global community base.
If one takes into account the first year of FbStart, he can clearly notice that Facebook has given a lot more to all the developers than just financial support. It has provided them the platform and the expert guidance which will prove to be beneficial in the coming years. Moreover, Facebook also provides ‘Social Good’ package along with the FbStart service to all the developers. This package helps them getting mentoring from none other than the Internet.org team of Facebook.
FbStart is planning to add another 9 partners and a lot of new start-ups in the second year to expand the reach of the community. With an objective to meet new startups and developers, Facebook will initiate FbStart World Tour program and hit 20 cities all over the world. The tour is expected to kick-off on June 1, 2015 in London.
