The Facebook Developer Boom is Over

According to figures compiled by well known Facebook developer Jesse Farmer, the Facebook app development boom is over.

Farmer compiled statistics on Facebook developer activity and successful Facebook apps, finding that since the beginning of the year, participation on Facebook developer forums has dropped 27% by unique users, and the number of posts a day has dropped 51%. Activity in a forum doesn’t necessarily prove that the boom is over, yet Farmer also found that the number of successful Facebook applications was down 33% since January (defined by regular users).

By no means does this spell an end to Facebook applications, but more likely reflects the end of the Facebook app development boom sparked when Facebook launched F8 back in May 2007. Farmer also notes two other factors in the declining stats: competing platforms from Hi5 and MySpace means that developers are now dividing their times across platforms, where as Facebook had the space to themselves for the better part of the year. The second trend is the rise of the App companies, bringing consolidation to application development points, reducing the number of single developers/ teams creating for the Facebook platform.