A growing number of internet social networking firms are drawing inspiration from Facebook's success with its own development platform, experts have indicated.Facebook launched its platform in May this year, beginning with 65 developer partners and more than 85 applications in total.
Now, there are more than 70,000 developers on the website's development forum and thousands of applications on the site.
Social networking websites such as LinkedIn, Hi5 and Tagged have made apparent their intention to launch similar platforms in recent weeks, while bigger potential competitors such as Google and MySpace are also rumoured to be considering such a project, CNET News.com reports.
Google in particular may be able to get off to a good start should it launch its own platform, analyst Stephen O'Grady of RedMonk told the news site.
"The advantage that Google has over other would-be players or start-ups is that just by virtue of being Google, they will compel attention," he commented.
Samir Arora, chief executive of Glam Media, which is focused on serving a female audience, added that any firms looking to launch such a platform should ensure it is "monetisable" - something that Google may be able to address immediately with its AdSense service, CNET News.com said.
It was recently reported that Microsoft may be considering a bid to buy a stake in Facebook in the future.
According to the Wall Street Journal, any proposal made by Microsoft could value Facebook at more than $10 billion.
