Facebook’s Parse could ‘gobble up’ a bigger role in VR and next-gen app development

SAUSALITO, Calif. — Parse, the app development platform that Facebook bought in 2013, has already been used to help create more than half a million apps. In the future, Parse wants to grow those numbers by potentially being a platform of choice for Oculus and other next-generation app developers.

During an on-stage interview at VentureBeat’s Mobile Summit here today, CEO Ilya Sukhar said that Parse “will try to gobble up more and more of” the kind of functionality for virtual reality (VR) apps, wearables, and other next-gen tools for which developers already turn to the platform with two-dimensional apps: commoditizing much of the apps’ mobile backend tools. The goal, Sukhar said, would be that “people don’t need to think about this stuff as they (build) for VR and as they move to new mobile interfaces.”