Social network pioneer MySpace unveiled a redesign on Wednesday targeting the younger “Generation Y” audience as it seeks to regain ground lost to Facebook.
MySpace, which Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp bought for US$580 million in 2005, said its new Web site and products are intended to “redefine the company as a social entertainment destination for Gen Y.”
“This marks the beginning of an exciting turning point for MySpace,” chief executive Mike Jones said in a statement.
“Our new strategy expands on MySpace’s existing strengths — a deep understanding of social, a wealth of entertainment content and the ability to surface -emerging cultural trends in real-time through our users,” Jones said.
MySpace said the relaunch was aimed at “creating a rich, highly personalized experience for people to discover content and connect with other fans who share similar interests.”
MULTIPLE PLATFORMS
“The entertainment experience will span music, celebrities, movies, television and games and will be available through multiple platforms, including online, mobile devices and offline events,” it said.
MySpace said it would focus on promoting “curators” — members with knowledge around entertainment and cultural topics and back them with “resources, tools and platform to expand their reach within the MySpace community.”
MySpace boasts more than 100 million users worldwide compared with Facebook’s more than 500 million and since being eclipsed by Facebook, the site has positioned itself as a platform for musicians and their fans.
The company said it would release a mobile version of the site later this year along with a new MySpace application for Apple’s iPhone and Android devices.
MySpace said the new site began rolling out Wednesday in beta, or test, mode and would be available to all users worldwide by the end of next month.
YAHOO
Separately, Yahoo has hired a former executive at one of the world’s largest media companies to fill a -major void on its management team.
Ross Levinsohn is joining Yahoo Inc as an executive vice president in charge of the company’s advertising sales, media division and partnerships in North America, Central America and South America.
He replaces Hilary Schneider, who announced her resignation last month along with two other top executives. The defections raised doubts about Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz’s efforts to revive the company’s revenue growth.
Levinsohn is best known for leading an Internet expansion at News Corp, owner of the 20th Century Fox movie studio, Fox television network and the Wall Street Journal. He started an investment fund after leaving News Corp in 2006.
SEMICONDUCTORS: The German laser and plasma generator company will expand its local services as its specialized offerings support Taiwan’s semiconductor industries Trumpf SE + Co KG, a global leader in supplying laser technology and plasma generators used in chip production, is expanding its investments in Taiwan in an effort to deeply integrate into the global semiconductor supply chain in the pursuit of growth. The company, headquartered in Ditzingen, Germany, has invested significantly in a newly inaugurated regional technical center for plasma generators in Taoyuan, its latest expansion in Taiwan after being engaged in various industries for more than 25 years. The center, the first of its kind Trumpf built outside Germany, aims to serve customers from Taiwan, Japan, Southeast Asia and South Korea,
Gasoline and diesel prices at domestic fuel stations are to fall NT$0.2 per liter this week, down for a second consecutive week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) announced yesterday. Effective today, gasoline prices at CPC and Formosa stations are to drop to NT$26.4, NT$27.9 and NT$29.9 per liter for 92, 95 and 98-octane unleaded gasoline respectively, the companies said in separate statements. The price of premium diesel is to fall to NT$24.8 per liter at CPC stations and NT$24.6 at Formosa pumps, they said. The price adjustments came even as international crude oil prices rose last week, as traders
SIZE MATTERS: TSMC started phasing out 8-inch wafer production last year, while Samsung is more aggressively retiring 8-inch capacity, TrendForce said Chipmakers are expected to raise prices of 8-inch wafers by up to 20 percent this year on concern over supply constraints as major contract chipmakers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and Samsung Electronics Co gradually retire less advanced wafer capacity, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. It is the first significant across-the-board price hike since a global semiconductor correction in 2023, the Taipei-based market researcher said in a report. Global 8-inch wafer capacity slid 0.3 percent year-on-year last year, although 8-inch wafer prices still hovered at relatively stable levels throughout the year, TrendForce said. The downward trend is expected to continue this year,
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which supplies advanced chips to Nvidia Corp and Apple Inc, yesterday reported NT$1.046 trillion (US$33.1 billion) in revenue for last quarter, driven by constantly strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips, falling in the upper end of its forecast. Based on TSMC’s financial guidance, revenue would expand about 22 percent sequentially to the range from US$32.2 billion to US$33.4 billion during the final quarter of 2024, it told investors in October last year. Last year in total, revenue jumped 31.61 percent to NT$3.81 trillion, compared with NT$2.89 trillion generated in the year before, according to
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