MySpace is apparently close to launching a MySpace.com venture in China. Private equity firm IDG looks to be a partner and News Corp. (NWS-NYSE) is expected to own less than 50% of the venture. The IDG-Accel China Growth Fund, managed by venture firmInternational Data Group Technology Venture Investment, willalso own a stake.
This would mark another huge win for Murdoch & Co, and it would make his acquisition of MySpace.com even a better win for the company. There is one potential problem that will have to be overcome, and you can’t imagine how difficult it would be to monitor. The regulation of media and free speech limitations imposed in China will probably be an ongoing battle and an ongoing issue. Who is responsible if an anonymous poster on MySpace.com was making critical comments about human rights issues or about a local issue that is deemed sensitive? Is it MySpace.com for having the conduit, or is it the poster? The real winner will be the Chinese media partner, and you know investors and traders are hoping it is one of the public Chinese web companies.
Reuters ran a story on this early this morning and there are many other comments out there. If this works out, you’ll know why Rupert Murdoch was deemed one of our highly entrenched CEO’s that you wouldn’t be able to get rid of no matter how hard you tried.
Jon C. Ogg
January 26, 2007
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