Written by Ani on 1:33 PM
MySpace announced its launch in China Thursday, following months of speculation about the Rupert Murdoch-controlled social networking site's plans for the nation's 137 million Internet users.
MySpace China introduced itself as a "locally owned, operated and managed company" in which News Corp-owned MySpace Inc was only one among several investors.
"Our team here will have the sole right to decide the operation model, the technology platform as well as the product strategy," said MySpace China CEO Luo Chuan, a former Microsoft executive.
"It's very unlike the other multinationals you might have heard about or seen in the Chinese market."
MySpace China may have been spurred to emphasise its local identity by the fact that international Internet companies' attempts to enter China have so far tended to end in failure, observers said.
"I think they're trying to distance themselves from the long line of previous blunders," said William Bao Bean, a partner with Softbank China India Holdings and an expert on Asian technology issues.
he said "There's no example of foreign Internet companies coming into China and being successful that I can think of".
Despite MySpace China's efforts to differentiate itself, MySpace Inc will be represented with three board members.
They include Murdoch's wife, Wendy Deng, as well as MySpace founders Chris DeWolfe and Tom Anderson, Luo said.
Investors in MySpace China also include International Data Group and China Broadband Capital Partners, an investment company founded by former China Netcom Group Corp chief executive Edward Tian.
Luo declined at a briefing to give specific details about the size of the investment or the share that MySpace Inc accounts for.
Analysts have said that it was necessary for MySpace Inc to enter into a partnership with local companies in order to gain access to China's tightly controlled Internet.
"Generally, in order to get a license, especially an Internet license, you have to be a local company," said Bean.
"Most of the 'foreign' sites use a joint venture contract-based structure with a local entity in order to run their business in China."
MySpace is one of the world's most popular websites, but the MySpace China community is still in its test stage, adapted from the US version, and will gradually be developed to meet the needs of Chinese users, the company said.
"Based on the MySpaced global brand and technology platform, we will develop products and features that are tailored to today's Chinese citizens," Luo said.
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