News Corporation and eBay on Tuesday agreed to put eBay's Skype, a Web-based phone service, on MySpace's instant messaging application. The move should drive greater usage of Skype, as MySpace users
trade phone numbers over IM chat to talk with one another. The companies will split revenues from the partnership, which begins in November. Skype only makes money from calls made to mobile and
land-line telephones; computer-to-computer calls are free.
The eBay phone service has 220 million worldwide users, while MySpace, the Web's largest social network, has 110 million
registered members. Kyle Brinkman, vice president of product development at MySpace, said voice communication would be "a competitive advantage to us for gaining users and keeping users." The
partnership will cross-promote both services, linking MySpace to Skype's network (and visa versa) allowing them to integrate certain MySpace features into their Skype profiles. The move is part of a
broader push by the eBay company to broaden its distribution as an add-on to other services.
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