Authoritative List of all Facebook Subcategories

Question

Does anyone know of any way to programmatically list all Facebook subcategories for places? I've seen this list here in another post which lists all categories (not subcategories), which is the same listed in the source code on the Facebook company creation page: Facebook Pages — Authoritative List of Categories

I'd like to categorize some businesses on Facebook so that they're easier to digest, but it seems that half of all businesses pick the category "local business" under "local business or place." Not really helpful to have the majority of all businesses in one catch all bucket.

Here's an example of a place categorized as local business with a subcategory of bar. Would be really helpful to get a full list of the subcategories. Thanks for the help.

{
      "page_id": xxxxx, 
      "description": "", 
      "name": "xxxxx Lounge", 
      "categories": [
        {
          "id": 110290705711626, 
          "name": "Bar"
        }
      ], 
      "pic_big": "xxxxx.png", 
      "type": "LOCAL BUSINESS"
    }, 

Answer 1

Facebook just made some changes to their graph API. The list of all subcategories (which Facebook calls "place topics") can be viewed in the Graph API Explorer here:

https://developers.facebook.com/tools/explorer/145634995501895/?method=GET&path=search%3Ftype%3Dplacetopic%26topic_filter%3Dall%26fields%3Did%2Cname%2Cparent_ids

The API call itself is:

https://graph.facebook.com/search?type=placetopic&topic_filter=all&fields=id,name,parent_ids&access_token=

It has the full taxonomy in that all topics list their parent topics, but if you wanted a bidirectional relationship, you would have to reverse engineer it yourself.

To avoid confusion it might be worth noting that what Facebook calls "Categories" is a higher level breakdown of page categorization. Each page can only have on Category, so there isn't any built in taxonomy, but they can have many Page Topics. I'm not sure where or if the full list is online, but it's this (Sorry for the ugly; I had some formatting issues):

Categories requiring location info:

category category_enum Description

1111 MOVIE_THEATER Movie Theater

1209 CONCERT_VENUE Concert Venue

1305 BOOK_STORE Book Store

1306 LIBRARY Library

1607 LAWYER Lawyer

1608 DOCTOR Doctor

1900 RESTAURANT_CAFE Restaurant/Cafe

2100 BAR Bar

2101 CLUB Club

2231 SPORTS_OUTDOORS Outdoor Gear/Sporting Goods

2500 LOCAL Local Business

2501 HOTEL Hotel

2506 AIRPORT Airport

2507 SPORTS_VENUE Sports Venue

2508 ARTS_ENTERTAINMENT Arts/Entertainment/Nightlife

2509 AUTOMOTIVE Automotive

2510 SPA_BEAUTY Spas/Beauty/Personal Care

2511 EVENT_PLANNING Event Planning/Event Services

2512 BANKS Bank/Financial Services

2513 FOOD_GROCERY Food/Grocery

2514 HEALTH_MEDICAL Health/Medical/Pharmacy

2515 HOME_IMPROVEMENT Home Improvement

2516 PET_SERVICES Pet Services

2517 PROFESSIONAL_SERVICES Professional Services

2518 BUSINESS_SERVICES Business Services

2519 COMMUNITY_GOVERNMENT Community/Government

2520 REAL_ESTATE Real Estate

2521 SHOPPING_RETAIL Shopping/Retail

2524 SPORTS_RECREATION Sports/Recreation/Activities

2525 TOURS_SIGHTSEEING Tours/Sightseeing

2526 TRANSPORTATION_TOURISM Transportation

2527 HOSPITAL_CLINIC Hospital/Clinic

2528 MUSEUM Museum/Art Gallery

Categories not requiring location info:

category category_enum Description

1201 SONG Song

1200 ALBUM Album

1202 MUSICIAN_BAND Musician/Band

1204 MUSIC_INSTRUMENT Musical Instrument

1206 PLAYLIST Playlist

1207 MUSIC_VIDEO Music Video

1208 CONCERT_TOUR Concert Tour

1210 RADIO_STATION Radio Station

1211 RECORD_LABEL Record Label

1212 MUSIC_AWARD Music Award

1213 MUSIC_CHART Music Chart

1105 MOVIE Movie

1103 ACTOR_DIRECTOR Actor/Director

1108 PRODUCER Producer

1109 MOVIE_WRITER Writer

1110 MOVIE_STUDIO Studio

1112 TV_MOVIE_AWARD TV/Movie Award

1113 FICTIONAL_CHARACTER Fictional Character

1400 TV_SHOW TV Show

1402 TV_NETWORK TV Network

1404 TV_CHANNEL TV Channel

1405 EPISODE Episode

1300 BOOK Book

1301 AUTHOR Author

1304 PUBLISHER Publisher

1308 EDITOR Editor

1307 MAGAZINE Magazine

1600 ATHLETE Athlete

1700 POLITICIAN Politician

1601 ARTIST Artist

1701 GOVERNMENT_OFFICIAL Government Official

1602 PERSON Public Figure

1605 NEWS_PERSONALITY News Personality

1604 JOURNALIST Journalist

1606 CHEF Chef

1609 BUSINESS_PERSON Business Person

1610 COMEDIAN Comedian

1611 ENTERTAINER Entertainer

1612 MONARCH Monarch

1613 TEACHER Teacher

1614 DANCER Dancer

1901 CUISINE Cuisine

2000 FOOD Food

2001 DRINK Drink

2202 WEBSITE Website

2205 CAR Cars

2206 BAGS_LUGGAGE Bags/Luggage

2208 CAMERA_PHOTO Camera/Photo

2209 CLOTHING Clothing

2210 COMPUTER Computers

2211 SOFTWARE Software

2212 OFFICE_SUPPLIES Office Supplies

2213 ELECTRONICS Electronics

2215 APPLIANCES Appliances

2216 BUILDING_MATS Building Materials

2217 COMMERCIAL_EQUIPMENT Commercial Equipment

2218 HOME_DECOR Home Decor

2219 FURNITURE Furniture

2220 HOUSEHOLD_SUPPLIES Household Supplies

2221 KITCHEN_SUPPLIES Kitchen/Cooking

2222 PATIO_GARDEN Patio/Garden

2223 TOOLS_EQUIPMENT Tools/Equipment

2224 WINE_SPIRITS Wine/Spirits

2226 JEWELRY_WATCHES Jewelry/Watches

2227 MOVIES_MUSIC Movies/Music

2230 PET_SUPPLIES Pet Supplies

2232 BABY_KIDS Baby Goods/Kids Goods

2262 VITAMIN_SUPPLEMENTS Vitamins/Supplements

2263 DRUGS Drugs

2201 PRODUCT_SERVICE Product/Service

2300 GAME Games/Toys

2301 APP App Page

2505 TRANSIT_STOP Transit Stop

2523 ATTRACTIONS Attractions/Things to Do

2503 LANDMARK Landmark

2522 PARKS_POI Public Places

2200 COMPANY Company

2233 MEDIA_NEWS_COMPANY Media/News/Publishing

2234 BANK_FINANCIAL_COMPANY Bank/Financial Institution

2235 NGO Non-Governmental Organization (NGO)

2236 INSURANCE_COMPANY Insurance Company

2237 SMALL_BUSINESS Small Business

2238 ENERGY_COMPANY Energy/Utility

2239 RETAIL_COMPANY Retail and Consumer Merchandise

2240 AUTO_COMPANY Automobiles and Parts

2241 INDUSTRIALS_COMPANY Industrials

2242 TRANSPORT_FREIGHT Transport/Freight

2243 HEALTH_COMPANY Health/Medical/Pharmaceuticals

2214 HEALTH_BEAUTY Health/Beauty

2244 AEROSPACE_COMPANY Aerospace/Defense

2245 MINING_COMPANY Mining/Materials

2246 FARMING_COMPANY Farming/Agriculture

2247 CHEMICAL_COMPANY Chemicals

2248 CONSULTING_COMPANY Consulting/Business Services

2249 LEGAL_COMPANY Legal/Law

2250 EDUCATION_COMPANY Education

2251 ENGINEERING_COMPANY Engineering/Construction

2252 FOOD_COMPANY Food/Beverages

2253 TELECOM Telecommunication

2254 BIOTECH_COMPANY Biotechnology

2255 COMPUTER_COMPANY Computers/Technology

2256 INTERNET_COMPANY Internet/Software

2258 TRAVEL_COMPANY Travel/Leisure

2260 COMMUNITY_ORG Community Organization

2261 POLITICAL_ORG Political Organization

2264 RELIGIOUS_ORG Church/Religious Organization

2600 ORG_GENERAL Organization

2601 SCHOOL School

2602 UNIVERSITY University

2604 GOVERNMENT_ORG Government Organization

2603 NON_PROFIT Non-Profit Organization

2606 CAUSE Cause

2618 POLITICAL_PARTY Political Party

2612 COMMUNITY Community

1800 SPORTS_LEAGUE Sports League

1801 SPORTS_TEAM Professional Sports Team

1802 COACH Coach

1803 AMATEUR_TEAM Amateur Sports Team

1804 SCHOOL_TEAM School Sports Team

2700 PERSONAL_BLOG Personal Blog

2701 ARTS_SITE Arts/Humanities Website

2702 BIZ_SITE Business/Economy Website

2703 COMPUTER_SITE Computers/Internet Website

2704 EDU_SITE Education Website

2705 ENTERTAINMENT_SITE Entertainment Website

2706 GOV_SITE Government Website

2707 HEALTH_SITE Health/Wellness Website

2708 HOME_SITE Home/Garden Website

2709 NEWS_SITE News/Media Website

2710 REC_SITE Recreation/Sports Website

2711 REF_SITE Reference Website

2712 REGIONAL_SITE Regional Website

2713 SCIENCE_SITE Science Website

2714 SOCIETY_SITE Society/Culture Website

2715 TRAVEL_SITE Local/Travel Website

2716 KIDS_SITE Teens/Kids Website

2717 PERSONAL_SITE Personal Website

Answer 2

To my knowledge, Facebook doesn't offer this level of detail.

A better plan is to use Factual. They publish a full taxonomy, and using their Crosswalk API can cross-reference most records back to a Facebook page / place.