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  • Reed Albergotti
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Facebook is leaping into the fitness tracking market by buying a Helsinki-based maker of a mobile app that can track users and automatically determine whether they’re walking, running, biking or riding public transportation.

Facebook is announcing plans Thursday to acquire ProtoGeo Oy, maker of a mobile app called Moves. The app works in the background, quietly gathering loads of data from the phone’s accelerometer, then displaying the results in a minimalistic fashion, with each activity represented by a colored circle.

The Moves app is an “incredible tool for the millions of people who want to better understand their daily fitness activity,” Facebook said in a press release Thursday.

Moves joins the Facebook family of mobile apps that includes Instagram, WhatsApp, Paper, Messenger and others.
Reed Albergotti for The Wall Street Journal

Facebook didn’t disclose the price it is paying for the app maker, but a spokeswoman said it’s nowhere near the size of other acquisitions the company has made in recent months. Earlier this year, Facebook agreed to acquire mobile messenger WhatsApp for $19 billion and Oculus VR for $2 billion.

Facebook said Moves, which launched last year and was called a “Surprise Hit” by Apple’s App Store, has been downloaded more than four million times by iPhone and Android users and has millions of users, Facebook said.

Moves is one of a growing number of fitness apps like Strava, Runkeeper, Nike + and others, but Moves stands out because of the breadth of activities it can track and detect automatically, including riding on public transit. Moves can also connect to other apps to add features. A list of apps capable of connecting with Moves includes one called “Trail,” another called “Logger – Graph Your Life,” and one called “Log My Day.”

Moves and other apps use sensors already built into most modern smart phones to mimic the capabilities of stand-alone wearable devices like Fitbit, Jawbone Up and a new product Apple is rumored to be developing.

Moves will continue to operate separately from Facebook, the spokeswoman said, but its employees, including founders Sampo Karjalainen, Aapo Kyrola and Zsolt Szasz will leave Helsinki and join Facebook offices in London and Menlo Park, Calif.

The acquisition is consistent with Facebook’s strategy of building or acquiring multiple stand-alone apps. Moves is expected to join a growing family of Facebook’s mobile properties, including Instagram, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and the recently launched news aggregator Paper.

During the fourth quarter earnings call with analysts Wednesday, Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg explained how the apps fit into the company’s long term goal of connecting the world. They’re “part of the full ecosystem of different ways that people want to share with different people,” he said.

Facebook reported stronger than expected earnings Wednesday, posting a 72% increase in revenue and a near tripling of profits, compared to a year ago. Facebook rising stock price, which has nearly doubled in less than a year has given the company deep pockets to bet on companies it believes might be the next winners in the rapidly-changing internet ecosystem.

Apps like Moves could also benefit Facebook by helping it gather data. At the heart of Facebook’s business model is its knowledge about users, which it uses to sell targeted advertisements. The Facebook spokeswoman said the company won’t use any data from the Moves app, but that could change in the future.

Facebook also recently added a new, optional feature to its core mobile app that notifies users when they’re near other friends. When users turn on the feature, Facebook can track their whereabouts even if they close the app. Facebook said it wouldn’t immediately use the data gathered from the Nearby Friends feature for targeted advertising.

For now, Facebook says the Moves app will be used only to help users “take small steps toward more healthy habits and lifestyle,” the company said in its press release. Facebook will also get the engineering talent of the team that created the app.

Correction: Aapo Kyrola is a founder of ProtoGeo. An earlier version of this article incorrectly spelled the name as Kryola. Also, the app’s algorithm is awaiting two U.S. patents. The earlier version said it was protected by one U.S. patent.