News Corp. in Early Talks with Chinese Blogs -Sources. (Bokee.com,
BlogCN.com)
eWeek, (November 2006)Abstract
SHANGHAI--Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., which is looking for a local
partner as it aims to launch its popular MySpace Internet social
network in China, is in early talks with prominent local blog companies
Bokee.com and BlogCN.com, industry sources said on Sunday.
On a visit to Beijing in September, Murdoch's wife Wendi Deng met
with Bokee--one of China's first and best-known blogging sites which
commands 25 percent of the market--one source said.
MySpace co-founders Tom Anderson and Chris DeWolfe have also met Bokee
and rival BlogCN several times, the sources said, though it remains
unclear whether there will be a tie-up.
"I think (News Corp.) wants to do their own thing--the talks were
to exchange ideas about how to operate in China," one source said.
Since last year's $580 million purchase of MySpace.com, one of the
Internet's fastest-growing properties, News Corp. Chairman and Chief
Executive Murdoch has been talking up the Web, as he now believes
Internet businesses will grow faster than cable networks and newspapers.
In September, Murdoch sent his wife Deng to Beijing as part of plans
to expand into 11 markets globally.
News Corp. said on Wednesday it could launch a version of MySpace
in China during this fiscal year if it found the right joint venture
partner.
The possible timeline on MySpace's China ambitions comes on the heels
of an announcement that News Corp. has struck a joint venture deal
with Softbank Corp. to launch a version of MySpace in Japan.
Chinese blogging companies, facing an increasingly competitive market,
are also hungry for foreign capital.
Bokee, whose name is Chinese for Web log, or "blog", has attracted
5 million yuan ($635,768) in seed funding as well as $10 million
in venture capital from six U.S. and Chinese firms.
Another blog, Blogbus.com, received between $3 million and $5 million
from Japanese venture capital firm JAIC and Japanese ad company Cyber
Agent, in Blogbus's first round of external investment, according
to local media reports this week.
News Corp.'s foray into China follows global giants Microsoft, Google
and Yahoo Inc., who already offer blogging services there, in a crowded
sector also populated by a bevy of homegrown players and social networking
sites.
China is the world's second biggest Internet market by users, with
more than 120 million netizens.
The number of bloggers in China is expected to hit 60 million by the
end of this year and 10 million by 2007, according to an article
from state news agency Xinhua this year citing a report by prestigious
Tsinghua University, despite curbs on media and dissent.
The Chinese government, obsessed with maintaining Communist Party
rule, routinely monitors online chat forums and bulletin boards for
controversial political comment, censoring words such as "freedom"
and "democracy".
In the past couple of years, several Internet sites that were forums
for candid opinion have been closed. (US$1=7.8645 Yuan)
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