DISQUS

David · 2 years ago

"Murdoch has made all the right moves. He has said MySpace’s local operations need to be very Chinese." - and then he brings in Wendi?? Getting someone who has no experience of China to setup an operation there is not good, but its almost as bad to assume that because somebody was born in China and speaks Chinese then they "know" China.

I think Wendi will be more of a liability than an asset to MySpace in China. I doubt she has had much hands-on experience in China since her Star TV days and her track record is not that impressive anyway.

Unless they are successful at poaching a lot of talent I would have thought they would be better off investing into or acquiring an existing player. My prediction is they will make a big bang when they launch (backed up by lots of $$) and then fade over time.

Ya · 2 years ago

Few expects Wendy's role to be beyond talent search and early relationship building.

The challenge to myspace china may lies in the nations' different social environment, values, and relationships. Building a giant user base and most importantly binding it with a solid and sustainable revenue model in a fircely competitive industry calls for vision, innovation, and strong execution.

With 10+ years local and global experiences at Microsoft, and especially the product knowledge and operating experiences from MSN space, the rumored candidate LUO Chuan of MSN China may be the best person Wendy and Edward can find for Murdoch.

Chris · 2 years ago

Wendi could be an asset although she wasn't impresive on her work at Star TV, but since she wasn't among the executives then, you can hardly blame her being non-impressive.

You need someone from the top, at Murdoch's level, to know China to all its subtleties. A good example is Skype, they formed an alliance with local portal, they "officially" offered pc to pc calling, and "unofficially" offer the pc to phone service which is banned in China for now. Skype can still "go around" the policy unpunnished. Other VoIP Provider like Vbuzzer are located outside China but they just seem to have a way to get their calling credits bought/sold in the Chinese Ebay or Taobao site.

The partner Murdoch/Wendi chose for their China operation, Mr. Tian, is a high profile guy who connects to almost the top level in China. Once the way is paved (I believe it will be paved with the help of Tian), they just need to hire a management team from local elite to run a successful business.

I think MySpace's methodology is correct this time.

Matt Marshall · 2 years ago

I can't comment on Wendi, because i don't know much about her. My point is more about their initial strategy. Thanks for insights.

Chris · 2 years ago

Matt, it's a good report to me and you are right in the general picture. When it comes to how to succeed in China, it's usually not how they entered China, it's how they fight battles in China. In my observation 2 things are far more important then the initial strategy, one is the give enough consideration in the cultural barriers, you can't duplicate what work in USA and hope it will work in China. (you can replace China with almost any other countries like Japan, remember Ebay is kicked out of Japan already). After all, social networking is more about a culture than a technology. So you need to hire a local operator. The second? you have to give enough trust and authorization to the guy you found/hired. Yahoo wasn't successful in China at all, because it failed in all 2 fronts.

Hopefully MySpace learned something and don't make the same mistake.

Tangos · 2 years ago

51.com in your post was linked to 51job.com.

Matt Marshall · 2 years ago

Thanks Tangos. Fixed.

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