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Comment (The U.S. online community website MySpace.com, an Internet branch of News Corporation, is extending its reach into the Chinese market. MySpace China is expected be launched in the boom village of IT industry in Beijing in late February or early March 2007.
An executive of venture capital firm IDG VC Partners told Sina.com Tech on Wednesday, January 24, 2007 that the investment for MySpace to explore the Chinese market has been determined. The three investors are MySpace's owner News Corp, IDG VC Partners and China Broadband Capital (CBC). Luo Chuan, former managing director of MSN China will be named the CEO of MySpace China.
According to the insider of the investment, MySpace China will adopt the mode of independent operation, contrary to the previously widespread belief that it would cooperate with a local portal in China to launch a joint venture website.
Though the scale and shares of the three-party investment are not made clear yet, the sources familiar with the deal said that a considerable part of the shares will be held by start-up teams. MySpace China will aim higher and build on the successful experience of its parent and sister firms worldwide, rather than grope alone for its own way on foreign soil like some start-ups. However, it will integrate itself into the Chinese Internet localities.
MySpace China, its domain and corporate title not revealed yet, will develop its own brand of MySpace after it is launched sometime in the next two months. The Chinese version interface that appeared on MySpace.com on January 22 (but has vanished now) has nothing to to with MySpace China. The site of MySpace China is reported to be in Beijing's dynamic IT hub Zhingguangcun Village.
Rupert Murdoch, CEO of the U.S. media giant News Corp., said on November 9, 2006 that MySpace would break ground in China soon and his 38-year-old Chinese wife Wendi Deng would be put in charge of the China-based website operation. But the insider said that Wendi Deng would not get involved in the daily operation of MySpace China, although she is expected to be on the board of directors.
In July 2005, as part of its corporate digital strategies, News Corp. spent $580 million acquiring the Los Angeles-based MySpace.com, an online socializing website enjoying surging popularity with teens and young adults.
MySpace entered the Japanese Internet market in November 2006 as a joint venture with Japan's Softbank Corp. The popular social-networking hangout also launched a French version earlier this month. MySpace is in beta testing in Germany, and an Italian version of the site was started last December.
