MySpace Prepares To Invade Europe

By Doug Caverly
Staff Writer
Article Date: 2006-06-21

Look out, world - MySpace is expanding. The social networking site has outlined plans to move into Europe.

At this moment, MySpace already has separate listings for the U.K. and Ireland, along with Australia, the U.S., and an all-purpose global site.

According to MediaBulletin, MySpace has plans to open an office in London.

And Chris DeWolfe, the co-founder and chief executive of MySpace, told the Financial Times that the company intends to move into 11 countries in the near future.

These included Germany and France; China and India were considered as possibilities for a later date.

In a related development, David Fisher was appointed yesterday as the new managing director for the U.K and Europe.

As reported by the Financial Times, Fisher said the first foreign-language MySpace sites will launch later this summer.

Even as all of this is occurring, MySpace's owner, News Corp., is setting the stage to sell the site's search business to Google, MSN, or Yahoo.

MySpace currently uses a Yahoo search engine, but it is provided to them through another source. Going straight to the search companies should save the site some money.

These happenings also coincide with MySpace's announcement of new safety measures designed to protect young users.

Big things are afoot at MySpace. The European expansion may be costly in the short term, but it looks like an intelligent move.

The company's decisions to auction off their search business and implement fresh protective measures have both received general approval (with some reservations attached to the latter action).

All in all, MySpace seems to be moving in the right direction.

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About the Author:
Doug is a staff writer for WebProNews. Visit WebProNews for the latest eBusiness news.

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