MySpace to go to Asia in joint venture

News Corp. and Japan’s Softbank Corp. announced plans recently to bring MySpace, the popular Internet social networking site, to Asia.

The 50-50 joint venture MySpace KK will be run mostly separately from News Corp., the site’s New York-based parent company, the two companies said.

Each company will invest 590 million yen ($5.09 million) in the new company, which adds to MySpace’s international operations in Britain, Germany, France, Australia and Ireland.

The new venture comes amid rapid growth in Japan’s social networking sites, which are thought to have more than 10 million users, according to the Nihon Keizai newspaper.

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