MySpace China launched today, and The Wall Street Journal has published a piece by Jason Dean that reveals some details about the company:
• “In a departure from the way other big foreign Internet companies have entered China, MySpace China will be run by a Chinese company that is controlled by local management, MySpace China Chief Executive Luo Chuan (罗川) said.”
• Rupert Murdoch’s wife Deng Wendi has a seat on the board; this is her first official position at News Corp., although people have been speculating about her influence on the company since she married Murdoch. US MySpace will have at least two other seats on the local company’s board. Former China Netcom Group Corp. CEO Edward Tian (田溯宁) is also on the board.
• The CEO is Luo Chuan (37), whose previous experience includes 12 years at Microsoft.
The Billsdue blog has translated some more juicy details of the deal, as reported in Caijing magazine, including the below:
The local company which holds all the licenses is called Beijing Maisibei Information Technology Ltd. (北京麦斯贝信息技术有限公司) It was established in December 2006 with registered capital of 1M RMB, the minimum amount needed to apply for an ICP license…
…The two shareholders of Beijing Maisibei Information Technology Ltd. are Deng Wenyong (邓文勇) and Li Zhen (李震). Deng Wenyong is from the same hometown as Rupert Murdoch’s wife Wendi Deng (邓文迪)–the Tianhe District of Guangzhou, and has the same name but for the last character, so it is likely this person is one of her relatives.
It is not clear why MySpace China will be successful. They don’t seem to have anything special to offer, and they are late to join an already crowded field…
UPDATE:The Mutant Palm blogger registered an account on MySpace.cn and searched for words that China’s Net Nanny really doesn’t like:
That’ll never… sweet Avalokitesvara! Identical results in both .com and .cn?? This ain’t gonna last past beta, people.
Read the whole thing for more stuff about MySpace China the Nanny might not like: “Splittists” to Rupert Murdoch: Thanks for the Addy!
- The Wall Street Journal: As MySpace Hits China, The Tough Part Begins
- Billsdue: MySpace China Launching Friday
- MySpace China