First WhatsApp Then Oculus, Now Facebook Buys ProtoGeo Moves Fitness App: Social Network Joins Nike & Samsung, Apple Planning iWatch and iOS Healthbook
Facebook, which seems to be on a series of app acquisitions lately, has recently purchased another application: fitness-tracking app Moves.
Moves allows users to keep track of their daily physical activities by creating an activity diary. Moves automatically records walking and cycling, as well as running duration and distance. In addition to this automatic feature of recording activities in the background, users may also manually input data; Moves is preloaded with more than 60 different activity types including several workouts. The app then plots the user's daily movement and other data for analysis later on.
With 4 million downloads and counting on both iOS and Android platforms, Moves is one of the more popular apps for smartphones focused on fitness. It is now Facebook's latest string in its significant acquisitions as users are becoming more health conscious. However, Facebook's immediate motives are not readily apparent with this purchase. Perhaps it plans to further expand the use of this social networking medium to include another aspect of human activity.
Neither Facebook nor Moves revealed the transaction cost, although it is speculated to be relatively modest when compared with other acquisitions such the recent multi-billion dollar purchases of VR Oculus and WhatsApp.
Fitness tracking apps and gadgets seem to be becoming increasingly popular for tech companies and consumers. This trend has been apparent with the production of fitness tracking devices by Nike and Samsung, to name a few. Apple is also expected to enter the arena with the much-anticipated iWatch believed to be equipped with advanced biomedical sensors hooked with the new iOS application Healthbook.
Moves was developed by Finnish start-up group ProtoGeo and was launched in 2013. It was then described by Apple as a surprise hit with a download count in the millions. ProtoGeo was happy to announce the acquisition of the app and the company.
According to reports, not much will change in terms of both the app and the company.
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