MySpace founder targets China's millions

One of the founders of MySpace is hoping to woo China's 120 million internet users

One of the founders of leading social networking site MySpace hopes to repeat its success in China.

Brad Greenspan, who once controlled 30 per cent of MySpace, said that he had launched and provided initial funding for BroadWebAsia (BWA), a company that will invest in "social networking, entertainment and search websites across Asia".

The company has already signed investment and partnership agreements with 20 small or medium sized Chinese internet companies, which together claim 20 million visitors per month.

BWA's partners include BBMAO.com, a Chinese meta-search site which compiles search results from various engines. The site already receives 70,000 visitors per day, according to BWA.

"The launch of BroadWebAsia will allow me to implement my proven US internet strategy in China, where there are more than 120 million users," said Greenspan in a statement.

"With less than 10 per cent of the Chinese population online, there is vast potential for growth.

"By partnering with early leaders and working with local management, we will dramatically increase traffic and revenue potential for our emerging online Chinese partners."

Greenspan's link to MySpace comes through its controlling company, Intermix Media, but he has a troubled history with the firm.

Greenspan co-founded Intermix and owned 30 per cent, but he left the company in 2003. Intermix claims that he was asked to resign as chief executive and was "removed" from his position as chairman.

Intermix made a series of blistering criticisms of Greenspan's tenure as chief executive when it rejected his unsuccessful bid to regain control of MySpace, prior to its $580m sale to Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation a year ago.

"The return of Mr. Greenspan to a control position over Intermix could create morale issues with a significant number of Intermix employees, including members of MySpace's management, and potentially harm the company's business," Intermix claimed in a press release at the time.

"When Mr. Greenspan was removed as Intermix chairman and asked to resign as chief executive, the company's common stock traded for less than $2 per share, the company was struggling with an accounting restatement, and its common stock had been delisted from the NASDAQ Small Cap Market.

"It was also the subject of an informal investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission, various stockholder lawsuits relating to the restatement had been filed, and the company was losing money.”

However, at the time of Greenspan's departure in 2003, the company made considerably more positive statements about his performance. The company's president said he was "thrilled" by the firm's accomplisments during Greenspan's tenure.

In 2005, Greenspan was fined $750,000 in New York State after he admitted that Intermix Media had once bundled adware with free software downloads and intentionally made it difficult to detect or uninstall, VNU's AdWeek reported last year.

Since parting ways with MySpace, Greenspan's most prominent venture has been VidiLife, a video site combining features of MySpace and YouTube w hich has proved moderately popular in the 10 months since it was established.