• Reuters, Friday, July 24, 2009 1:10 PM

Reuters reports that News Corp. is planning to reposition MySpace, the Web's second largest social network, as more of an entertainment destination with a distinct focus on online video gaming. Speaking at a Fortune magazine conference on Thursday, Jonathan Miller, the company's chief digital officer, said he sees an opportunity to make MySpace's gaming platform better geared towards video game suppliers who will want to launch their products on the site and employ its user data to better develop games.

"MySpace is and will be more in the future a gaming platform, a space for people to meet and play games," Miller said. "None of the traditional media conglomerates are also significant video game players, so to speak, and I think that that's the missing piece of the equation, particularly when you see how much time is spent playing games online," he added.

As Reuters' Alex Dobuzinskis notes, analysts have been doubtful about MySpace's entertainment drive, especially since YouTube and Hulu dominate user-generated and professional video. However, a focus on gaming could help MySpace better compete against social networking rival Facebook, Dobuzinskis says.

According to the latest figures from comScore, Facebook had more than 307 million unique visitors in April, compared to 125 million for MySpace. The latter already has a portal where users can play videogames with friends online, while Facebook hosts a number of casual games, from Scrabble to chess.

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