Facebook will soon feature Skype's video chatting capabilities after a deal was made today between Microsoft and Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg.
Zuckerberg announced the video chat deal during a press conference this morning. This deal comes just months after Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer announced plans to buy Skype.
The partnership between Skype and Facebook comes a week after Google announced plans for Google+, a Facebook rival that will also feature video chatting.
"Working with Skype underlines our approach to building stuff. Social infrastructure is our focus, we want to leave different types of applications to entrepreneurs – a very different strategy from other internet companies who try to do everything themselves," said Zuckerberg.
"Independent entrepreneurs will always do a better job than a company trying to do a million things at once."
Skype CEO Tony Bates encouraged the partnership between the two companies, calling it a "long-term relationship" that would benefit them both.
Facebook’s video chat will allow users to chat with one other person at a time, while Google allows users to call multiple people at the same time. However, Zuckerberg suggested that Skype’s “premium” functions may be incorporated in the future.
During the press conference, Zuckerberg also announced that Facebook had reached 750 million users.
There was plenty of public opinion over the deal, with news of the deal trending on Twitter throughout the afternoon.
"Is Facebook and Skype
integrating the answer to save itself from Google+ ???," wrote Ryasa.
PaulMacKenna tweeted: "Facebook needs to reinvent its self. This could be it"
What do you think about the deal?
