Facebook, the world’s biggest social-networking company, was in talks with Skype Technologies SA for offering Web video calls to its 500 million users, two people familiar with the discussions said.
Video calling between friends on Facebook was first discussed by the two companies last year, said one of the two sources, who asked not to be identified because the talks were private. The feature wasn’t offered in an October update to Skype, which did include voice calling between Facebook friends.
As Web users adopt new ways such as video and mobile messaging to communicate, Palo Alto, California-based Facebook has added features to give members more ways to keep in touch. Bringing video calls to its social network would ramp up competition with Apple, which introduced the feature on its iPhone in June, and with Google , which offered Web calling through Gmail in August.
Video calls accounted for more than 41 per cent of the total Web calling between Skype users in the second half of last year, the company said in January. Luxembourg-based Skype registered with the US Securities and Exchange Commission in August to sell shares to the public.
“Last year, we announced the integration of Facebook with Skype to ensure people can keep themselves up to date with their Facebook friends through News Feed in Skype and even call and SMS their Facebook friends on any phone from Skype,” Facebook said yesterday in an e-mailed statement. “With regard to any further integration, we don’t comment on rumour and speculation and have nothing to announce at this time.”
Jennifer Caukin, a spokeswoman for Skype, declined to comment.
