Struggling MySpace loses chief after 10 months

Music success: MySpace was credited with Lily Allen and the Arctic Monkeys' rises

11 April 2012

MySpace, Rupert Murdoch's troubled social networking website, has abruptly parted ways with chief executive Owen van Natta after only 10 months as it lags further behind rivals such as Facebook and Twitter.

Murdoch's News Corporation, which paid $580 million (£370 million) for MySpace in 2005, is replacing van Natta by promoting the website's co-presidents Mike Jones and Jason Hirschhorn to run it jointly.

As recently as 2008, California-based MySpace was the world's most popular social networking site and was credited with helping British rock stars such as Lily Allen and the Arctic Monkeys break into mainstream.

But Facebook rapidly overtook it and has 400 million users, roughly four times the size of MySpace.

Van Natta was appointed last April, when News Corp trumpeted his previous experience as Facebook's chief revenue officer and vice-president of operations, but he failed to replicate that success.

According to comScore, MySpace suffered a 33% fall in British monthly users in the year to December while Facebook rose 54%. Twitter experienced faster growth from a low base, with British users up almost 1,800%.

Van Natta said: "MySpace is an incredibly unique place and we've made real gains in terms of product focus and user experience."