Mark Zuckerberg In Talks With Uber For A Potential Integration Into Facebook Messenger
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is reportedly conducting preliminary talks with Uber CEO Travis Kalanick about integrating the taxi service into Facebook Messenger.
Facebook, the world's largest social networking site, is looking to add more features to its instant messaging application, Messenger. Company's CEO Mark Zuckerberg reportedly held talks with Uber CEO Travis Kalanick about discussing the potential integration of the taxi service into Facebook Messenger. The move was originally reported by Re/Code, citing sources familiar with the company's plans on Thursday.
With Uber's service integrated into Facebook Messenger, users will be able to book a ride in cities where the service is available. The integration would be the first of its kind if it comes through. This will help both companies benefit with an exposure to a wider audience. For Facebook, the partnership will help get more customers payment info on its data base for its future e-commerce initiative, according to Re/Code. Whereas Uber will be have access to potentially 200 million customers that use Facebook's mobile messaging app a month.
Reports of Facebook conducting talks with Uber comes shortly after Zuckerberg announced stronger-than-expected earnings on Wednesday with $839.60 million in profits during the three month period ending June 30, up 138 percent compared to a year prior. Zuckerberg, who is one of the richest men in the world with personal wealth over $31 billion, talked about improvements to the messaging space and it now appears the plans are already set in motion with preliminary talks.
"It's very conceptual, and nowhere near execution," one person familiar with the situation told Re/Code. "But it's a direction that Messenger has to go in."
Recently, Facebook added a "Buy" button for ads displayed in News Feeds. The feature is still in testing and looks to simplify online shopping. The company also updated the Messenger app for large screens on iPads earlier this month.
Uber has also been expanding its services to new cities and has operations in 140 cities aroind the world. The company announced a partnership with Google in May and integrated the option to book a ride from within Maps.
