James Delahunty
4 Oct 2010 11:25
According to the Wall Street Journal, Facebook Inc. and Skype SA are in talks to share communication services through both services. The partnership would allow Facebook users to sign into Skype using their Facebook Connect accounts, allowing them to use the text, voice and video communication services offered by the Internet telephone leader.
The integrated functionality, expected to be announced within weeks, would appear in the Skype 5.0 update. Skype claims to have 560 million registered users, of which 124 million use at least once a month. Facebook touts 500 million registered users. A partnership between the two heavyweights would increase pressure on Google Inc., which has been struggling to respond to the rise of Facebook.
Google has taken aim at Internet telephone services with Google Voice and voice communication through GMail. It has attempted to lure users to new social services such as Buzz, but has generally failed to hurt the competition so far. According to comScore Inc., U.S. Internet users spent 41.1 billion minutes on Facebook during August 2010, surpassing the 39.8 billion minutes spent using Google services.
Skype offers free video and voice communication services through the Internet, but also provides Skype-to-landline and mobile services at low rates. It has registered for an IPO in which it could sell $100 million in American depositary shares.