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Social Networking site “MySpace” launches new China service

• Posted by animo on April 30th, 2007 filed in Any Topics, Daily Blog, News (Worldwide)

BEIJING - Social networking site MySpace launched a test version of its China’s new service on Friday, making a late entry into the Chinese Internet market.

“Based on the MySpace global brand and technology platform, we will develop products and features that are tailored to today’s Chinese citizens,” Luo Chuan, a former Microsoft Corp. executive who is to lead the venture, said in a prepared statement.MySpace China will be a Chinese-owned company with backing from MySpace Inc., the IDG venture capital firm and a Chinese investment fund.

MySpace will face competition, WangYou.com, with over 11 million users, offers Chinese features such as uploading karaoke songs. News Corp. has tried to expand in China but has been stymied by restrictions on foreign media ownership. China has the world’s second-biggest population of Internet users after the United States, with 137 million people online.

“MySpace China is not yet optimized to fully meet the needs of Chinese users and we continue to improve products and services based on the feedback and recommendations from our test and trial users,” Luo’s statement said.