Facebook has confirmed the acquisition of fitness-tracking app Moves, suggesting Facebook is looking to enter the healthcare market.
The fitness tracking market has exploded in recent years, fuelled by the launch of wrist-worn devices like the Samsung Gear Fit and Jawbone UP24.
Now, it looks like Facebook is attempting to cash in on this rapidly growing market with its latest acquisition.
Apparently, the Moves team will join with Facebook to improve the service, but the Moves app itself will still exist as a separate entity.
“Today, we’re delighted to announce that Facebook has acquired our company and the Moves app,” came the official Moves statement. “Since we launched Moves, we’ve been focused on running a simple and clean activity diary that millions of people have enjoyed using.”
The figure Facebook has paid for the fitness-tracking service hasn’t been disclosed, but it gives Facebook the first step into the fitness market.
“Now, we’re joining Facebook’s talented team to work on building and improving their products and services with a shared mission of supporting simple, efficient tools for more than a billion people.”
Of course, Moves only gives Facebook some software as the service is currently only in app format. However, Facebook may look to develop its own hardware later on.
Recently, the news emerged that Nike could be looking to abandon the hardware portion of its FuelBand service, focusing only on its software rather than physical devices like the Nike FuelBand SE. Facebook could therefore be looking to follow suit in this way.
Since it launched last January, Moves has accrued more than four million downloads across iOS and Android, with “millions” of active users, making it a sensible acquisition for the social media giant.
Read more: Best fitness trackers 2014