Facebook is planning to wind down its Parse app platform , which it bought for a reported $85 million back in 2013, ahead of a full closure in January next year.

Parse is a cloud-based platform that provides backend services for data storage, notifications and user management. Developers using the service therefore do not need to manage servers and complex infrastructure.

According to TechCrunch, some 600,000 apps have been built on the platform.

“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,” the company said in a statement.

“We are committed to maintaining the backend service during the sunset period, and are providing several tools to help migrate applications to other services,” it added.