MySpace to cut 300 international jobs

Social network company MySpace, which has been facing stiff competition from rival Facebook, announced a second wave of deep job cuts.

MySpace, exactly a week after reducing its domestic staff by nearly 30 per cent, said it was reducing its international staff from 450 employees to about 150 employees. The social network purchased by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation in 2005 for $580 million (Dh2.1 billion) said the restructuring would result in the closure of at least four of its offices outside the United States.

It said all existing offices in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, France, India, Italy, Mexico, Russia, Sweden and Spain were being placed under review for possible restructuring. MySpace said that London, Berlin, and Sydney would become the primary regional hubs for its international operations.

Locally owned and operated MySpace China and MySpace's joint venture in Japan would not be affected by the proposed plan, the company said. "With roughly half of MySpace's total user base coming from outside the US, maintaining productive and efficient operations in our international markets is important to users worldwide and our immediate financial strength," MySpace Chief Executive Owen Van Natta said in a statement.

"As we conducted our review of the company, it was clear that internationally, just as in the US, MySpace's staffing had become too big and cumbersome to be sustainable in current market conditions," he said.

"Today's proposed changes are designed to transform and refine our international growth strategy," Van Natta said. MySpace's announcement that it was shedding two-thirds of its international staff came one week after it announced it was cutting 420 jobs in the United States, nearly 30 per cent of its domestic staff.

The first round of job cuts reduced the domestic workforce to 1,000 employees – still more than Facebook's staff of about 900 employees. Van Natta, who was named MySpace CEO in April, was a chief revenue officer and vice-president of operations for Facebook.

He resigned from Facebook in early 2008 and joined Project Playlist, an online music site.

Van Natta also previously served as vice-president of worldwide business and corporate development for online retail company Amazon.com.

Facebook replaced MySpace last year as the world's most popular social network, and industry figures show it has been widening its lead.

Facebook was the top social networking site when ranked by total minutes for the month of April, showing a gain of 700 per cent from a year earlier, according to a recent study by Nielsen Online. MySpace was in second place, with its total minutes declining from 7.3 billion in April 2008 to 5.0 billion in April 2009, the survey said.

MySpace, which launched in 2003, claims 130 million users compared with Facebook's audience of 200 million and has been repositioning itself as an online community for musicians and music fans.

According to analysts, the restructuring at MySpace is also an attempt by the company to pare expenses in preparation for the expiration next year of a lucrative advertising contract with powerhouse Google.

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