Software developers will be offered up to $250,000 (£125,000) to develop applications for popular social network Facebook, the site's founder has said.
Mark Zuckerberg announced incentives to firms and individuals who create "innovative and disruptive programs".
There are already around 4,000 of the small programs available on the website.
They include music and digital gifts, games of scrabble and fortune cookies.
The fbFund grants, announced at the TechCrunch40 conference in San Francisco, will come out of a $10m pot gathered by Facebook's primary backers Accel Capital and The Founders Fund.
"With just a little bit of capital, a company can grow to hundreds of thousands of users," Mr Zuckerberg said.
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Cash reward for Facebook programs
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