We already knew that this year’s fbFund – Facebook’s incubator program that invests in startups building apps on the platform – would be focused on companies using Facebook Connect.
Today, as Facebook (
) revealed the first 25 of 50 finalists for the program, we see further evidence that the future of Facebook as far as developers are concerned lies mostly in that of Facebook Connect as opposed to apps that run inside of the social networking site.
In all, 17 of the 25 finalists announced today are either third-party websites or iPhone applications that use Facebook’s platform for letting users login to third-party applications using their Facebook credentials.
Sure, Facebook Connect might be more attractive right now to developers because there is a bit less competition (Facebook recently revealed that there are more than 50,000 apps running inside its site on the original platform) and building apps on your own site has its advantages, but I think Facebook is also signaling – with their wallet – that Connect is where the company’s ultimate vision is headed.
As it should be. Facebook Connect is seeing competition in the portable identity arena from both Google (
) and MySpace (
), though so far, they would appear to be out to the early lead in terms of adoption. Recent numbers indicate that Facebook Connect might already reach 60 million users, while mega partners like Digg () are just starting to bring their implementations online.
Now, with Facebook investing directly in companies building promising apps for Connect, they stand to extend their lead and attract developers to their program as opposed to the competitors. There’s also the nagging rumor that Facebook will eventually launch a behaviorally targeted ad network based on Connect, which could be a huge revenue source for the company in the long-term.
We’ll see if Facebook continues to favor Connect investments when the other 25 finalists are announced, and more importantly, when money is actually handed out to the winners. Everything we’ve seen so far though suggests that there is clearly a shift to Facebook Connect underway in the world of Facebook development.
