Parse, Inc. Explained

Parse, Inc.
Location City:Menlo Park, California, U.S.
Parent:Facebook, Inc.
Fate:Defunct, 2016

Parse, Inc. was a company acquired by Meta (then named Facebook) in 2013 and shut down in January 2017.[1] [2] They developed a MBaaS platform, Parse. Following the announcement in 2016 of the impending shutdown, the platform was subsequently open sourced.

After the hosted service was shut down, the open source version grew into an open source community with its own blog, documentation, and community forum.

History

Parse was founded in 2011 by Tikhon Bernstam,[3] Ilya Sukhar, James Yu, and Kevin Lacker, previously at Google and Y Combinator. The firm produces back-end tools for mobile developers that help mobile developers store data in the cloud, manage identity log-ins, handle push notifications and run custom code in the cloud.

On November 9, 2011, it raised $5.5 million in venture capital funding.[4] [5] In 2012, its tools were being used by 20,000 mobile developers and that number was growing at 40% monthly.[6] On Sept 11, 2012, it added the ability to create custom code on the back end.[7]

Fast Company named Parse one of the top 50 most innovative companies of 2013.[8]

Facebook acquired the firm for $85 million in 2013.[9] [10] [11] [12]

In 2014, Parse was reported to power 500,000 mobile apps.[13] [14]

On 28 January 2016, Facebook open sourced Parse Platform[15] and announced that it will close its Parse Hosting Service,[16] with services effectively shutting down on 28 January 2017.[17] [18]

Facebook opened the application source code in order to allow users to perform the migration to self-hosted Parse Server.[19] A range of vendors are able to host Parse applications, providing migration alternatives.[20]

The service operated until 30 January 2017, at which point all users needed to migrate their applications to self-hosted Parse Server or move to other platforms.[21]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Facebook Parse now lets you easily deploy mobile apps to Heroku. VentureBeat. 2015-11-14. Novet. Jordan.
  2. Web site: Miners. Zach. Facebook buys Parse, gets into development tools business.
  3. Web site: Kincaid. Jason. YC-Funded Parse: A Heroku For Mobile Apps. Techcrunch. 4 August 2011.
  4. Web site: Parse, The 'Heroku For Mobile', Raises $5.5 Million Series A. TechCrunch. 2015-10-28. Jason. Kincaid.
  5. Web site: Parse raises $5.5M to give any mobile app a home in the cloud. 2011-11-09. 2015-10-28. Colleen. Taylor.
  6. Web site: This Startup Could Literally Change The Way The Entire App Industry Works. Business Insider. 2015-11-14. Lynley. Matt.
  7. Web site: Hey, mobile app developers, get on the Parse cloud. VentureBeat. 2015-10-28. Grant. Rebecca.
  8. Web site: McCorvey. J.J.. Most Innovative Companies 2013. Fast Company. 2015-11-14. https://web.archive.org/web/20150926135146/http://www.fastcompany.com/most-innovative-companies/2013/github-parse. 2015-09-26. dead.
  9. Web site: Rusli. Evelyn. Facebook to Buy Mobile Startup Parse in Cash-and-Stock Deal. Wall Street Journal. 25 April 2013.
  10. Web site: Cutler. Kim-Mai. Facebook Buys Parse To Offer Mobile Development Tools As Its First Paid B2B Service. Techcrunch.
  11. Web site: Hickey. Matt. Facebook Buys Mobile App Platform Parse. Forbes. 25 April 2013.
  12. Web site: Purdy. Doug. Welcoming Parse to Facebook. Facebook. Facebook blog.
  13. Web site: Devs have built 500K apps on Facebook's Parse, with Asia seeing 90% growth in first half of 2014. VentureBeat. 2015-11-14. Novet. Jordan.
  14. Web site: Facebook Buys Its Way Into the Heart of the App World. Wired. 2015-11-14. en-US. Metz. Cade.
  15. Web site: Parse Platform.
  16. Web site: Facebook's Parse May Be Dead But It Continues To Live Within The FOSS Community.
  17. Web site: Moving On.
  18. Web site: Facebook to Shut Down Parse, Its Platform for Mobile Developers . Mike Isaac and Quentin Hardy . January 28, 2016.
  19. Web site: Migration Guide.
  20. Web site: Parse Alternatives.
  21. Web site: Facebook's Parse developer platform is shutting down today . Fitz Tepper . January 30, 2017.