Six months into the opening up of the API platform by Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB), more than 10,000 apps have been launched. It is kin of the platform brought on board a complete innovative way of managing apps on the web. Nevertheless, regardless of new wave of apps unfolding, Josh Elman, now a partner at Greylock Partners and who was then a product manager at Zazzle had a different observation. Users became less engaged.

Facebook became less fun according to Elman because of the hundreds of the flooded requests that users are encoutering. For example; hit them with a reward, play this game etc. He bullied the platform all along which resulted to his joining of Facebook where he played a key role in the launch of Facebook Connect.

Well, Facebook was much smaller then hence it was not able to entice key brands the likes of CNN, Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Time Warner Cable Inc (NYSE:TWC)’s The New York Times to partner with its platform. That meant, Facebook had to embrace the right partners for flexibility and creativity purposes that would ensure true integration with the platform.

In normal circumstances, startups go after the “big whales”. However, given that both parties have different agendas and prospects, the startups end up failing miserably. But Facebook choose Huffington Post whereby their distribution partnership turned out to be a complete success with bounty of benefits.

Consumer Internet companies the likes of Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR), LinkedIn Corp (NYSE:LNKD), and Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Google had something to lean back on, a new avenue for creating apps. Startups that initially did not have a brand power to cling on are now able to create a direct channel to a large user base.

Nevertheless, as all this unfolds, Elman has sent out a word of caution to startups. They still need to build up their individual identities and only use the platforms to speed up their goals. He emphasis that growth is all about strategic thinking. They should entice their users into doing things in the right places using the right platforms.