Facebook staff discussed selling API access to apps in 2012-2014

Following a flopped IPO in 2012, Facebookdesperately brainstormed new ways to earn money. An employee of unknown rank sent an internal email suggesting Facebook charge developers $250,000 per year for access to its platform APIs for making apps that can ask users for access to their data. Employees also discussed offering Tinder extended access to users’ friends’ data that was being removed from the platform in exchange for Tinder’strademark on “Moments”, which Face