Why have Facebook bought activity tracker Moves?
Mark Zuckerberg has got his chequebook out again and acquired the activity tracking app Moves.
The app is a fitness tracker – it sits running in the background on your phone and will track your walking, running and cycling throughout your day. Then you can get all sorts of analytical data, and even download your data after.
In a statement on the sale, the company said “For those of you that use the Moves app – the Moves experience will continue to operate as a standalone app, and there are no plans to change that or commingle data with Facebook.” – so what is it Facebook want?
It’s not the first slightly weird acquisition by the company – only a few weeks ago they bought Oculus Rift and it makes some sense for them.
Not only is fitness tracking a market that is only going to grow with the launch of smartwatches like the inevitable iWatch and Samsung Gear 2, but this is more data that inevitably will find its way talking to Facebook. Heck – perhaps it could even improve the fitness experience as you compete with friends?
More broadly, buying up successful and small companies that have the potential to grow a lot makes good business sense. As we’ve seen with the purchase of WhatsApp, Facebook are desperate to remain relevant – and rather than sit still, they’ve got the cash to ensure it happens.
So expect to start seeing news feed adverts for health foods if you start slacking on your training programme soon.
