Is Facebook Preparing to Launch Video Chatting In a Partnership with Skype?
While working on the Green Any Site facebook application, and digging around facebook, I noticed a curious little object in their code which wasn't there a few days ago. — The object, which is simply called VideoChat …
Context & Ripple Effects
In mid-October 2010, Skype shipped a Windows client that added Facebook integration alongside group video calling — a confirmed first step toward tying the two platforms together. What is new here comes from an unusual source: the Green Any Site developer, digging through Facebook's own markup while working on an app, found a previously absent object simply labeled "VideoChat".
Both the launch itself and any Skype involvement remain unconfirmed rumors as of late November 2010, but they fit squarely on top of that October integration — Facebook would supply the audience, Skype the calling technology. Notably, no other outlet had picked up the find at the time of writing, so the story rests entirely on one code inspection.
First-order effects
- If the rumor holds, Skype gains distribution inside Facebook without buying users one download at a time, extending the reach it just built with its Facebook-integrated Windows client.
- Facebook would get a video-calling capability built on proven infrastructure instead of developing its own, keeping users inside its site rather than sending them to a desktop app.
Second-order effects
- A Facebook-branded video chat would put pressure on Google, which along with Skype was already facing scrutiny from India's security agencies over its communications services — competition and regulatory attention converging on the same players.
- Standalone VoIP providers would face a shrinking addressable audience as the largest social network absorbs video calling into its own interface.
Third-order effects
- The episode reinforces a structural pattern: communication features migrating out of dedicated applications and into social-network surfaces through partnerships, with platform owners controlling the entry point.
- It also shows pre-launch code sleuthing becoming a recurring disclosure channel — third-party developers inspecting platform markup can surface product plans before any official announcement, compressing companies' control over their own launch narratives.
The trend: Social platforms are pulling standalone voice-and-video services into their own interfaces as embedded partner features, with leaked code increasingly announcing the move before the companies do.