Facebook has bought the fitness app 'Moves', which helps users monitor daily physical activity and their calorie counts on a smart phone.
The two-year-old Finnish startup ProtoGeo, which developed the app, said today that it had been acquired by the US social networking giant, and that key members of its team would be moving to the Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park, California.
Both companies said 'Moves' would continue as a standalone application, rather than be integrated into the Facebook framework.
'Moves' assured users that "there are no plans to change that or commingle data with Facebook."
"The 'Moves' team has built an incredible tool for the millions of people who want to better understand their daily fitness activity, and we are looking forward to the app continuing to gain momentum," Facebook said in a statement.
Facebook executives had told analysts in a conference call yesterday that they were focused on building up their "ecosystem" of apps as a way to bring more users to the company and eventually find more avenues for revenue via advertising or other means.
The company made two large acquisitions earlier this year, spending 19 billion USD for the instant messaging service WhatsApp and 2 billion USD for a virtual reality company, Oculus.
No financial details of the 'Moves' deal were given.
