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Facebook agrees Samsung on content, mobile

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By Kim Yoo-chul

Top executives at Facebook and Samsung Electronics agreed to jointly develop mobile content.

The social network site looks to improve its mobile presence and Samsung needs to boost its content business.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg met with Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman and Samsung heir-apparent Lee Jae-yong at the Korean company's main office in Seocho, southern Seoul, late Tuesday.

This time marks the third Lee-Zuckerberg meeting since June, last year. Samsung mobile chief Shin Jong-kyun also attended the meeting, said officials.

The meeting was "win-win" for both, they said, give the values and advantages each has.

"As Facebook is focusing on an ecosystem in social networks, the company needs a trustable business partner in hardware and I believe Samsung is the right company," said one official.

Samsung Electronics recently unveiled the "Gear VR" a virtual headset. This is a collaboration with Facebook which bought Oculus.

Also, Samsung asked Facebook to collaborate on content as the Korean technology giant has recently been pushing its music streaming service to take off.

They also discussed some futuristic business projects because officials at Samsung Open Innovation Center in Silicon Valley also flew to Korea to address some challenging issues that the parties are facing.

But Samsung spokesman declined to comment.

The meetings is significant given the recent problems Facebook had with launching its new Home service on the HTC First, an Android smartphone which was billed as the Facebook phone, but has sold poorly.

Facebook Home, a variant of its own content, was also previously launched on the Samsung Galaxy S3, S4 and Note 2, suggesting that Facebook's relationship with Samsung is already healthy, and Zuckerberg will no doubt be looking to capitalize on that.

But it's highly unlikely that Samsung will manufacturer a "Facebook-only" mobile phone as the market is heading towards full saturation with the sector leaders suffering from huge operating losses.


Kim Yoo-chul yckim@koreatimes.co.kr


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