MySpace, the social networking site, has continued its expansion into new geographies, announcing roll-outs of local sites in India and Korea this week.

The site, which is owned by News Corporation, parent company of Times Online, now has 29 'localised' versions in 15 languages, with Brazil among the more recent additions.

Travis Katz, Managing Director of International for MySpace, said it was important for social networking sites to expand quickly globally, because 75 per cent of the world's internet users - and 50 per cent of the world's online advertising spend - were outside the US.

Social networking sites have also discovered that once a competitor gets a foothold in a country, it becomes difficult for others to enter the market. MySpace, which has about 80 million users worldwide according to Nielsen Online, is the dominant network in the US, whereas Facebook, which has 39 million, is more popular in the UK.

"If you want to have growth in the long term, then you need to be tapping into new markets, but it's important to adapt the product where necessary so that it's relevant to the local audience," Mr Katz said in an interview.

In the case of Korea, considered an important strategic market because of its technologically advanced population, that meant making the MySpace home page more graphics and icon-based and less text-heavy, and introducing a new feature known as a mini-blog, where users can 'update friends on their mood' in a short blog on their profile.

MySpace will face tough competition in the form of Cyworld.com, however, a networking site on which an enormous number of South Korean already have profiles.

India, meanwhile, has a far less developed online population, with only an estimated 40 million people using the internet in a country of a billion people, Mr Katz said. "The online ad market in India is growing at a rate of 30 per cent, but only 1 per cent of the overall ad pie is being spent online, so that's on a relatively small base," he said.

Content for MySpace India will come through a range of partnerships, including one with Star TV, the Asia-wide television network also owned by News Corp.

The announcements come only a week after MySpace signed a deal with ShineReveille, the TV distributor, to help sell content that had been produced uniquely for the MySpace site for broadcast on traditional TV networks.

Both MySpace, which also has plans to launch in Russia, and Facebook have been eyeing up new territories as the popularity of social networking grows.

Last month Facebook indicated that it would soon be launching a version of its site in China by calling on Chinese-speaking users to help translate the site into Chinese - a technique it had used before launching a Spanish version in February.

Analysts say they will face significant challenges, however, particularly in lucrative markets such as China - where MySpace already has a site - because competitors were well-established, and because of cultural differences in the way people used the internet, which it was difficult for US companies to adapt to.

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