Facebook Buys Startup 'Parse' to Make Social Networking ‘Friendlier’ on Smartphones

Facebook announced it would be buying startup company Parse in an attempt to make social networking on smartphones friendlier.

With the advent of smartphones and tablets, Facebook and all other major social networking sites are focusing more on their mobile features, as more and more users turn away from the traditional desktops and browse through social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram on their smartphones and tablets.

Social networking giant Facebook has for some time now been working hard on their mobile aspect and has recently announced the acquisition of startup company Parse in an attempt to make social networking on smartphones friendlier. Parse specializes in powering mobile applications. Exact details of the deal weren't revealed, but a few tabloids have reported that the deal was finalized at $85 million.

"By making Parse a part of the Facebook platform, we want to enable developers to rapidly build apps that span mobile platforms and devices," Facebook said in a blog post.

The startup company has already earned quite a name for itself by providing software developers tools for building applications and handling behind-the-scenes tasks such as data storage and servers to handle services for app users, regardless of which mobile devices are involved.

"This removes the need to manage servers and a complex infrastructure, so you can simply focus on building great user experiences," Facebook said.

"In just under two years, we've gone from a rough prototype to powering tens of thousands of apps for a very broad spectrum of customers," Parse chief executive Ilya Sukhar said in a blog post. "Combining forces with a partner like Facebook makes a lot of sense."