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MySpace Launches In South KoreaFiled at 1:00 p.m. ET SEOUL, South Korea (AP) MySpaces chief executive said Tuesday the U.S. networking Web site is poised to thrive in the South Korean market because it pays more attention to local culture than its competitors. Speaking after the launch of MySpaces Korean-language version in Seoul, Chris DeWolfe said he was confident about the sites prospects in a country that has proved difficult for foreign online services such as Google Inc. He noted the Korean-language site included a new feature, Minilog, a way for Korean youths to jot down everyday thoughts and feelings in a few hundred characters. Capitalizing on Asian affinity for fancy stationery, the feature has options to personalize stamps and backgrounds to resemble different types of notebook paper. We believe that theres different cultures in every country, DeWolfe told a forum at Seouls elite Yonsei University in the South Korean capital Seoul. We believe that people use Web sites differently in every country. The Los Angeles-based MySpace is expected to face stiff competition from local social-networking sites such as Cyworld in a market that has typically shunned U.S. online services popular elsewhere in the world. South Korea, one of the worlds most wired and tech savvy nations, is one of the few global markets where Google is not the dominant search engine. Here, local companies such as NHN Corp.s Naver Web site and Daum Communications have led the way. DeWolfe said other companies have failed to sufficiently pay heed to local culture, a mistake he said MySpace is trying to avoid. Weve done a lot of studies on what went wrong with those companies and why, DeWolfe said. Some Koreans expressed skepticism about MySpaces prospects. I think one major problem facing MySpace is whether and how they can overcome the language barrier, said Lee Da-young, a 20-year-old university student. I wonder how many Koreans can communicate with those abroad in English. Kang Ji-hye, a 29-year-old office worker, said that in general South Koreans prefer to stick with the familiar. With Korea, MySpace now has sites for 29 countries or regions and in 15 languages, including English. MySpace, a unit of News Corp., also plans to launch a site for India later this week. Last week, it expanded its offerings for Latinos based in the United States. The MySpace site will be primarily in Korean, though users can easily switch the interface to another language. Information written on the personal profile pages, however, wont be automatically translated. Initially, music and video will be the content prominently featured, allowing users to communicate regardless of their native language. Besides introducing new tools such as Minilog, MySpace is softening the blue color on its Korean site to give it a greater sense of intimacy, while thumbnail images that have appeared elsewhere in varying sizes have been standardized to give Korean users consistency. AP Internet Writer Anick Jesdanun in New York contributed to this report. On the Net: http://kr.myspace.com Tag CloudExternal InformationAdditional InformationFor Games and Videos, a Laptop Made to Impress and Perhaps Intimidate...Plugging the gap, at last... GodTube takes religion to the online masses... Chief of AOL’s Parent Is Open to Deal... Where Am I?News Main Page - Business - MySpace Launches In South Korea |
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