Menlo Park, Calif. - Silicon Valley venture capital firm Bay Partners has announced a new program that will provide financial support to developers creating applications for the Facebook online social network.

In addition to "tens of investments from $25,000 to $250,000," Bay Partners' AppFactory will also provide technical and business resources to help entrepreneurs build and monetize their applications.

"When Facebook announced its platform, a set of application programming interfaces (APIs) and services that allow outside developers to inject new features and content into the Facebook user experience, Facebook, in essence, became the Social Operating System," the firm said.

"Historically, the creation of an operating system, or a platform, has led to a new economy which includes a marketplace of applications."

So far, more than 1,400 applications have been created for Facebook by outside developers.

Related Links:
http://www.baypartners.com/appfactory

http://www.f8.facebook.com/apps