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MySpace plans tactics to take over the world

By Josephine Moulds
Last Updated: 8:25am BST 18/06/2007

MySpace plans tactics to take over the world
Singer Lily Allen shot to fame with help of MySpace, which attracts 69m users a month

Chris DeWolfe, founder and chief executive of MySpace, has set out plans to exploit the huge popularity of the social networking site, which attracts more than 69m users every month and has been credited with launching the career of singers such as Lily Allen.

DeWolfe, who sold the business to News Corporation in 2005 for $580m (£290m), raised the prospect of teaming up with the likes of eBay to offer its users an online retail service.

"We will at some point offer user generated e-commerce transactions," he said. "So if you're on your site and you have a line of T-shirts you have designed and you want to sell them to your friends, we want to be able to provide you with the tools you need to do that.

"So we could partner certainly with someone like eBay to do that. We haven't decided yet but it would be probably a good bet that someone like eBay could be a good partner."

Rumours have been circulating since February that the two internet giants were in talks. DeWolfe said the e-commerce tool was "something we're looking at growing, but not in the next few months. It's probably six to nine months down the line."

The service would let MySpace reach that bit further into its users' lives online. MySpace is first and foremost a social networking site, where users can upload photos, music and videos to share with friends. But it is constantly adding features and there is now a classifieds section and instant messenger tool, and users can buy and sell music via the site. For many teenagers MySpace is their entire internet experience.