MySpace Comes to China
Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp intends to have another go at the China Market. After leaving the Chinese TV Market in June this year New Media will be the next attempt.
From the Financial Times:
Rupert Murdoch said on Tuesday that his wife, Wendy Deng, was working with senior News Corp executives to help bring the company’s popular MySpace social networking site to China.
“We have to make MySpace a very Chinese site,†Mr Murdoch said at a media conference organised by Goldman Sachs. “I have sent my wife across there because she understands the language.”
Mr Murdoch, chairman and chief executive of News Corp, bought MySpace last year as part of his strategy for the digital age. MySpace has become one of the most popular sites on the internet because of the ease with which people can communicate and share text, pictures and video.
The China version of MySpace will try to stay away from political obstacles. In the past Mr. Murdoch has been less adaptive to the China reality.
He said his wife, Ms Deng, who is not an officer of the company, was currently in China with senior News Corp executives trying to find a way for MySpace to enter the Chinese market without running up against political obstacles and the “heavy weather” that internet groups Google and Yahoo have encountered.
Mr Murdoch said MySpace in China was likely to have local partners, who would own around 50 per cent.
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Gemme van Hasselt is an Internet Marketing Consultant, living in Shanghai, China. His musings on life can be found on China Snippets
