New boss wants to innovate MySpace

28 May 2009 09:45am

The new leaders of News Corporation's MySpace have said they need to innovate to rejuvenate the social networking site, which has suffered from stalled user growth.

Owen Van Natta didn't detail specifics but indicated that the ability to make changes to the site was a reason he took the job of MySpace chief executive last month.

"When I look at MySpace there's just so much opportunity to build," Mr Van Natta said. "I took the job because there's a lot more that can be done around innovation."

Though praised for its substantial entertainment content, MySpace has been criticised for falling behind rival Facebook when it comes to technology. Its worldwide user base has also stagnated at about 130 million, compared with Facebook's 200 million.

Mr Van Natta, a former Facebook executive, said success would require trial and error, with failures along the way. He said it's starting from a strong place with millions of users.

MySpace, based in Beverly Hills, California, has distinguished itself from Facebook by allowing users to be "super-creative" in designing their pages, Mr Van Natta said.

"I'm a big believer in personalisation," he said.

"Our job is to make MySpace really, really great for everybody, and that means that the experience has to be different for everybody."

© The Press Association