Facebook is setting up a telecoms partnership with Skype that it hopes will bring idiot-proof online video calls to the masses.
The deal will allow Facebook users to make free video calls through a service that will be powered by Skype technology without having to leave the Facebook site.
Microsoft is buying Skype, the market leader in internet-enabled video chat, for $8.5 billion (£5.3 billion). Microsoft has owned a minority stake in Facebook since 2007 when it bought a 1.6 per cent share for $240 million.
“We’re going to see a lot more things like this in next few months and years,” said Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook. He also sketched out a new five-year plan for the company.
Facebook now has 750 million active users, Mr Zuckerberg said, and will concentrate on increasing the ways in which its members interact with each other, rather than on their sheer number.
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Google is also entering social networking with its new Google+ service, which includes the ability to make group video calls.
Tony Bates, Skype’s chief executive, said that Mr Zuckerberg had been the first person that he and the Microsoft boss Steve Ballmer had visited after the pair agreed the Skype acquisition in May — a detail that underscores Facebook’s growing influence online.
Skype, which has about 150 million regular users, hopes that by tapping into Facebook it can rapidly expand its user base. The company, which was previously owned by eBay, processes about 300 million minutes of video calls a month but has struggled to make a profit. It hopes eventually to introduce paid-for services that would be available through Facebook.
Facebook said: “Video chat has been around for years now, but it’s still not an everyday activity for most people. Sometimes it’s too difficult to set up, or the friends you want to talk to are on different services.
“Our mission is to make communications as pervasive and ubiquitous as possible. [Teaming up with Facebook] will propel us to a new level,” Mr Bates said.