Facebook on Thursday announced it had launched its own “App Center,” a specifc section on the website where users can browse and download free and paid third-party apps. Though Facebook offered third-party apps before, namely games like the popular Zynga hit “FarmVille,” the mechanism to get these was more disorganized, with users having to navigate to an individual tite’s Facebook page.
Facebook said that the App Center, which is found in the left-hand column of a user’s profile page and is available for Android and iPhone as well, is rolling out to U.S. users first, followed by all 900 million-plus users worldwide later.
The move is widely interpreted as an attempt to compete with Apple and Google’s own mobile app stores.