The largest social networking site in the world could soon collaborate with one of the largest internet based telephony companies in the world. A ‘far-reaching partnership’ between social networking site Facebook and the internet telephony company Skype is in the works, according to AllThingsD.
The two companies are set to announce a partnership that would allow Facebook users the ability to make telephone calls through the internet and send text messages from their profile page on the social networking site. The Facebook integration will be in the latest update (Skype 5.0) of the internet telephony company.
Technology columnist for Wall Street Journal, Kara Swisher, explained that the new strategic partnership could see the social networking giant challenge the threat of internet telephony service, Google Voice. Swisher says Skype and Facebook “have tested small contact importer integrations before”, but had not gone public. Swisher added that a formal arrangement between Facebook and Skype can help the social networking site to “mesh communications and community more tightly together”.
Neither Skype nor Facebook have made an official announcement. A representative for Facebook did release this statement in response to questions about the partnership, “We don’t comment on rumors and speculation.”
More than 500 million people use Facebook while approximately 560 million people use Skype. Of the 560 million, at least 124 million users use the service once every month.