TOKYO - Banking on the global appeal of Japanese pop and video games, social networking site MySpace said it would more than double the number of artists on its Japanese pages to get more clicks internationally.
The growth of new sign-ups and page views is slowing in Japan for rival networking services such as mixi Inc, but Myspace, which launched its Japanese site two years ago, aims to buck the trend by expanding the range of sales artists can make on its site.
This, allied with growing interest in J-Pop music and Japanese video games in other parts of the world, will help the site grow rapidly, said the Japanese head of MySpace, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.
“Until now, Japanese artists catered primarily to the home market, but the home market is no longer big enough," MySpace Japan CEO Atsushi Taira said in an interview with Reuters. “Demand for Japanese music and games is strong abroad, and we are now uniquely positioned to clear barriers posed by language."
The number of artists that have registered with the Japanese version of MySpace has doubled in the last six months to a little under 90,000 people, Taira said.
The growth of new sign-ups and page views is slowing in Japan for rival networking services such as mixi Inc, but Myspace, which launched its Japanese site two years ago, aims to buck the trend by expanding the range of sales artists can make on its site.
This, allied with growing interest in J-Pop music and Japanese video games in other parts of the world, will help the site grow rapidly, said the Japanese head of MySpace, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.
“Until now, Japanese artists catered primarily to the home market, but the home market is no longer big enough," MySpace Japan CEO Atsushi Taira said in an interview with Reuters. “Demand for Japanese music and games is strong abroad, and we are now uniquely positioned to clear barriers posed by language."
The number of artists that have registered with the Japanese version of MySpace has doubled in the last six months to a little under 90,000 people, Taira said.
