Facebook and Skype Team Up for Video Chat
In a move that looks like an attempt to steal the new Google+ services thunder, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has announced that the Skype video chat will be integrated into Facebook.
Skype was recently purchased by Microsoft for $8.5 billion (although still awaiting regulator approval) and MS already have a tie-in with Facebook allowing Bing to be used for search results within FB. Microsoft also, it should be said, have a shareholding in FB.
So perhaps it was inevitable that Zuckerberg would look to take advantage of Skype’s technology and expertise at some point to bypass the huge time and expense of developing something from scratch.
From Skype’s point of view their seems to be the lure of the massive user base that Facebook now commands (Zuckerberg stated that it was now over 750 million users), Skype’s own service offers options for free but also premium services for those so inclined. Presumably this business model will be brought into facebook.
The new features were announced at a press conference today by Zuckerberg and Skype CEO Tony Bates. Zuckerberg mentioned that the launch of Google’s social service Google+ and other services had validated Facebook’s vision of the social web.
I guess the question now will be, which one of your facebook friends do you actually want to talk to?
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