Facebook is Shutting Down Parse ⇥ blog.parse.com

Parse was a mobile development framework that combined a bunch of backend services that a lot of apps use. Nearly three years ago, Facebook acquired the company.

Kim-Mai Cutler of TechCrunch, quoting Parse’s announcement of the deal:

Parse has agreed to be acquired by Facebook. We expect the transaction to close shortly. Rest assured, Parse is not going away. It’s going to get better.

Today, Parse cofounder Kevin Lacker delivered the bad news:

We have a difficult announcement to make. Beginning today we’re winding down the Parse service, and Parse will be fully retired after a year-long period ending on January 28, 2017. We’re proud that we’ve been able to help so many of you build great mobile apps, but we need to focus our resources elsewhere.

According to their brag page,¹ Parse’s customers included some of the biggest and most popular apps on both iOS and Android. Uniqlo, Eventbrite, Plenty of Fish, Lululemon, and more all used Parse. Stubhub? Parse. Vevo? Yep. Zoosk? HopStop? The fucking White House? Their apps used Parse. Heck, even that shelved new app Panic was working on used it.² Developers can rely upon third-party infrastructure so long as it’s never acquired, the company never “pivots”, and there’s a reliable business model in place.