Facebook-Owned Parse to Host First Developer Conference

Parse, the mobile back-end-as-a-service startup owned by Facebook, plans to host its first-ever developer conference in San Francisco this fall.

The startup, which Facebook bought in April, is widely respected throughout the Silicon Valley engineering scene. It’s a reliable service that provides developers with tools and back-end support to develop cross-platform apps.

That’s a service that Facebook, which doesn’t own a mobile operating system or a native mobile App marketplace like Apple or Google, wants to be a part of. As the social giant’s ad revenue has shifted from desktop to mobile, Facebook’s future is obviously contingent upon being relevant to mobile developers. And Facebook has made no bones about the fact that the company wants developers to build applications that run on top of its platform, as well as use Facebook as a central location for their apps to be discovered by the masses.

So the conference is likely to bolster support not only for Parse’s tools and services, but also to remind developers that Facebook, too, should be considered an option for app discovery, along with the iOS and Android stores.

As an aside, Twitter has also made the app-discovery pitch to developers recently, inviting mobile developers to a Twitter-hosted event at its San Francisco HQ, and touting new mobile-friendly features on its platform. The new technology, Twitter Cards, also allows for greater discovery and distribution through tweets.

Parse’s developer conference will involve talks from Parse and Facebook employees, as well as partner-led sessions from Microsoft, Twilio, Xamarin and SendGrid.

The registration page goes up this morning, and the conference will be held at the Marriott Marquis on Sept. 5. Ticket proceeds will be donated to CodeNow.org, a nonprofit that provides free computer programming training to high-schoolers.