MySpace Doubling China Staff

Reuters has posted that MySpace will be doubling their Chinese work force over the coming year. Considering they currently have 70 employees in China, doubling shouldn’t be too difficult. This news in conjunction with yesterday’s news about the MySpace gaming competition (which is limited to China, Japan, India and Korea), highlights the shifting battle for user attention.

While the U.S. may be close to social network market saturation, there remains to be massive growth opportunities abroad, especially in Asia. Facebook recently launched the Chinese version of their site (along with over 15 other languages). The launch of these languages are most definitely contributing to Facebook’s continued rapid global growth.

MySpace has experienced a substantial slowing of growth domestically and their shift to Asia highlights the new social network battleground. Both MySpace and Facebook face significant competition in China with companies like 51.com and Xiaonei both attracting millions of users and both with substantial war chests. Xiaonei recently raised $430 million and 51.com raised over $50 million as well.

Asian social networking will definitely be a hot area for people to keep their eyes on over the coming months as the battle heats up!

Join Baratunde Thurston (left), The Onion’s Director of Digital and author of How to Be Black, for an entertaining look at creative social media campaigns in our Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting February 16. Other speakers include Morin Oluwole (Facebook), Tim Devane (bitly), and SocialTimes' writer Devon Glenn.   Register now.