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Facebook expands App Center into more countries

The App Center will appear as a bookmark on user home pages and mobile apps in countries such as India, South Africa, and the U.K.

Roger Cheng Former Executive Editor / Head of News
Roger Cheng (he/him/his) was the executive editor in charge of CNET News, managing everything from daily breaking news to in-depth investigative packages. Prior to this, he was on the telecommunications beat and wrote for Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal for nearly a decade and got his start writing and laying out pages at a local paper in Southern California. He's a devoted Trojan alum and thinks sleep is the perfect -- if unattainable -- hobby for a parent.
Expertise Mobile, 5G, Big Tech, Social Media Credentials
  • SABEW Best in Business 2011 Award for Breaking News Coverage, Eddie Award in 2020 for 5G coverage, runner-up National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Award for culture analysis.
Roger Cheng
Facebook's App Center

Facebook said today that it has expanded the availability of its App Center store to several more countries.

The App Center will appear as a bookmark on users' Facebook home page and mobile apps in the U.S., Australia, Canada, India, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa, and the U.K.

The App Center is Facebook's attempt to drive its ecosystem of applications of games and other services on the social network, keeping users glued to its site even longer. The company is also increasingly reliant on these apps for revenue, taking a cut of any money these apps generate. Zynga, for instance, is a large enough contributor to the social network's revenue that it is mentioned in its IPO filing.

The international expansion is important because 80 percent of its users are outside of U.S. and Canada, Facebook said. The company added the global roll out would continue in the coming weeks.

The App Center has helped drive app adoption on the site. The company pointed specifically to game developer Kixeye as a company that benefited from increased visibility and downloads.

Walt Disney's Marvel: Avengers Alliance game has also seen an increasing number of players come from the App Center, Facebook said.