The world's most popular social networking site, MySpace -- owned by the media tycoon Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation -- has officially been launched in India.
The site, christened MySpace India, will offer music through its partnership with SaReGaMa, the well-known music label owned by the RPG group.
Amit Kapur, chief operating officer, MySpace, said, "We are producing a series of albums in association with SaReGaMa for both national and international audiences."
The site will organise a group of 30 aspiring bands from across three cities for the initiative. MySpace India industry alliances include a partnership with India's largest television network Star TV.
MySpace India is trying to position itself as an entertainment site. MySpace's Managing Director (International) Travis Katz said, "We will provide the necessary tools to the people of India to live their lives online and offer a launch pad to the creators from developers to musicians and filmmakers, to showcase their talents on the global stage."
Katz said that MySpace India will deliver content through a range of industry partnerships and product innovations.
In alliance with Star TV, it has created a television programme called 'Campus Star'. "The new show, currently airing on television in India, is a nationwide college talent competition featuring celebrity judges and the voting MySpace audience," he said.
MySpace, which has around 110 million users in the US, had recently announced plans for a new online music download service, pitting it directly against Apple iTunes and raising the stakes on the digital media battlefront.
The venture, called MySpace Music, offers free streaming music, MP3 downloads, concert tickets, mobile phone ringtones and band merchandise. MySpace along with music labels such as Universal Music, Sony BMG and Warner Music Group have their music catalogs on MySpace Music.
Kapur does not rule out a similar tie-up for the India market, "We think it will be easy to replicate the partnerships for Indian audiences where the market for such multimedia content is much larger."
MySpace will encourage the Indian developers to work with it to develop customized applications for the social networking portal.
"MySpace Developer Platform team will be on-site in Bangalore soon to welcome the local developers onto the open MySpace platform," revealed Kapur.
MySpace, he insisted, is committed to working with the local developers across India and building local applications for the site's more than 250 million registered users worldwide.
MySpace has hosted local "devJAM" developer workshops in Beijing, Tokyo, Seoul, Sydney, London, Berlin, Seattle, Stockholm and San Francisco till date.
