Another Facebook App Acquisition: Slide buys Favorite Peeps for $60k
Following on the heels of last week's acquisition of Extended Info by SideStep, I received a tip today that widget maker Slide has acquired Facebook application Favorite Peeps for a reported $60,000.
Context & Ripple Effects
Facebook opened itself to outside developers only weeks ago — the API in mid-June 2007, then the F8 platform launch — and consolidation has arrived almost immediately. SideStep bought the Extended Info application last week; today widget maker Slide follows with a reported $60,000 acquisition of Favorite Peeps.
The price points matter more than the amounts: these are among the first trades of F8-era applications, valuing Facebook install bases as purchasable distribution. They land amid broader attention on Facebook as a phenomenon — including commentary arguing it is an enterprise play and a potential incursion into LinkedIn's territory — which raises the stakes for whoever holds app reach.
First-order effects
- Slide gains Favorite Peeps' installed user base outright for a reported $60,000, extending its Facebook widget portfolio days after SideStep absorbed Extended Info.
Second-order effects
- Other widget makers now face the choice of buying Facebook apps for distribution versus building their own, while developers see a new incentive to write applications expressly to sell them.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, F8 turns the Facebook app directory into an active acquisition market where reach is traded between widget firms, concentrating platform value with whoever accumulates installed bases fastest.
The trend: Facebook's newly opened platform is turning third-party applications into tradeable assets, with established widget makers buying distribution rather than building it.