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2010-10-15 07:14:33
By Maggie Shiels Technology reporter, BBC News, Silicon Valley
Mobile phone with Facebook app Together the deal means access to around 1
billion users
Skype is integrating with Facebook to make it easier to call and video chat
with friends and family on the social network.
The deal comes amid fevered rumours that Facebook plans to launch a phone of
its own.
Meanwhile Skype is gearing up for a $100m ( 62m) share issue.
"The essence of the Skype experience is communicating with the people you care
about," said Rick Osterloh, Skype's head of consumer products.
The new Skype for Windows will include a Facebook tab. This means that for the
first time Skype users can keep up-to-date and interact with their Facebook
news feed including posting status updates, commenting and liking directly from
Skype.
Added to that, the Facebook phonebook in Skype allows users to call and text
Facebook friends directly on their mobile phones and landlines.
And if your Facebook friend is also a Skype contact, then users can make free
Skype-to-Skype calls.
Group video calling is available in beta form as a free trial.
"We're working with companies such as Skype to make it easier to find your
friends anytime you want to connect," said Ethan Beard, director of Facebook's
developer network.
'New market'
The move is seen as a natural one for the world's biggest social network, which
is aiming to be the central communications and messaging platform for its users
across a range of media.
Commentator Ben Popper of business technology blog BNET.com told BBC News it is
a win-win for both firms.
"For Skype they are getting built right into the conversation. For Facebook,
which has the bulk of its users in the US, this is good in terms of expansion
because a chunk of Skype users are in Europe and the rest of the world."
Mr Popper also said he believed this points towards "a possible new market".
"The deal makes this space a lot more interesting and indicates a different
direction of where communications could go.
"Right now phones are owned by the cellular networks. This partnership is big
enough and deep enough, it could point towards a different kind of telco
[telecommunications company] in the future."
Skype has around 560 million registered users and 8.1 million paying users. The
Luxembourg-based company said that people spend an average of 520 million
minutes every day talking to one another on the service.
Facebook has more than 500 million users, helping the two companies close in on
around one billion users, though there will be some overlap.
The research company ComScore reported that in August Facebook users spent more
than 40 million minutes on the social networking giant.
The new Skype version 5.0 for Windows is available now. There has been no
announcement about when Mac or Linux versions will follow.