MySpace, Facebook Get Serious About Asia

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MySpace plans to enter more markets in Asia Pacific in the next six months, Katz says. "We are really just getting started there." For instance, MySpace is considering a kind of MySpace lite, which could include fewer graphics and multimedia features to enable faster loading in areas such as India where dial-up connections are more common than high-speed Internet access.

Facebook's Head Start

Facebook is expected to step up its Asia Pacific efforts in the next six months: "Facebook is committed to the internationalization of the site by…early 2008," a spokesperson writes in a message. But Facebook is already one of the fastest-growing Web sites in the region, registering a 3,242% increase in unique visitors from August, 2006, to August, 2007, when more than 7 million locals logged on to its site, according to comScore. By comparison, Orkut grew 156% and MySpace's traffic only grew 85% during the same period.

Facebook is getting an unexpected leg up from a rival's PR nightmares. In August, a 16-year-old Mumbai boy who had been missing was found murdered by acquaintances he met on Orkut. The ensuing nationwide publicity sent shock waves across India, and kids abandoned Orkut in droves. That came on the heels of an incident in June, when one of India's right-wing Hindu political parties, Shiv Sena, called for a nationwide ban of Orkut in response to hate messages posted on the site against its party leader. Shiv Sena members vandalized Internet cafes in a Mumbai suburb in support of the ban. "You never know when things can go wrong with social networking sites," says Shirish Deo, an Internet cafe owner in Santa Cruz, a Mumbai suburb.

Speaking Asia Pacific's Language

Orkut and Friendster aren't sitting idly by as fellow U.S.-owned networks infiltrate. In late August, Orkut became available in five new Asian languages: Hindi, Bengali, Marathi, Tamil, and Telugu. And a source tells BusinessWeek.com that Orkut is talking to developers in India (BusinessWeek, 10/8/07) about writing third-party applications for its site.

On Sept. 24, Friendster launched its first foreign-language site, in traditional Chinese, with staff in the Philippines and Singapore. The site works with local companies to get advertisers such as Nokia (NOK) on board. This summer, the site rolled out Fan Profiles. The feature, which was a hit in Asia, lets users make new friends through their existing connections. "We are building up steam in greater China," says Jones, adding that Friendster will soon roll out the site in other Asia Pacific languages, too.

It doesn't have time to waste. Now that all of Narayan's friends have made the switch to Facebook, she has no reason to return to Orkut. When her peers across the region do the same network-hopping, they may not look back either.

Kharif is a reporter for BusinessWeek.com in Portland, Ore. Lakshman covers India business for BusinessWeek .