Facebook has quietly launched Bonfire — its video chatting app that bears more than a passing resemblance to Houseparty — in Norway.
The launch was spotted by Boston-based app analytics firm, Apptopia. This makes it the second market it’s launched in, after Facebook started a soft beta of the app in Denmark.
Adam Blacker, PR at Apptopia, said “While Denmark is a top three country in terms of soft launches, Norway is chosen less often. It’s possible Facebook strategically chose a market physically near Denmark to create a bigger network of engagement and see how that plays out.”
According to Blacker, Bonfire has only had 4,000 downloads to date. It’s still very much a small-fry, especially compared to its larger rival Houseparty, which Apptopia says has gets downloaded two million times each month. That’s deliberate though; Facebook likely wants to test out the app on a small market before it decides to embark on a wider roll-out.
However, everything indicates that a global release is on the horizon. Not only is Facebook releasing Bonfire to a wider audience, but it recently launched the app on Android. The fact that Bonfire is released across both platforms suggests Facebook is pretty keen on the idea.
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If you’re not in Denmark or Norway, but want to test the app out, you can find out how here.
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