Global Internet voice and video communications network Skype has acquired mobile-to-mobile video streaming service Qik, Skype announced at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.
The internet voice calling service has bought Qik for approximately $100m, sources said.
Qik, which allows users to conduct two-way live video calls through smartphones, e-mail, SMS and social networking sites, has more than 5 million users as on December 2010.
The mobile streaming service is available on over 200 mobile phones across the Android, iPhone, and Blackberry platforms. It comes pre-loaded on a wide variety of mobile handsets through partnerships with handset makers and telecom carriers.
The new acquisition is expected to help Skype use the technology behind Qik’s Smart Streaming technology that facilitates video transmission across wireless networks, according to a note on Skype’s website.
Currently, Skype facilitates 25% of the world’s international long distance voice calling minutes and approximately 40% of those Skype-to-Skype calls are conducted over video.
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