• Los Angeles Times, Wednesday, November 14, 2007 11 AM

Bebo on Tuesday became the first social network to invite major media companies to make their content available to its 20 million-strong user base. The site's users can now legally post music and video files to their profile pages. The initiative, called Open, has an impressive list of launch partners, too: Viacom's MTV, CBS Corp., Walt Disney Co.'s ESPN, Yahoo Inc., Sony Pictures Entertainment Co.'s Crackle and JibJab Media Inc.

Bebo is the No. 3 social network on the Web, but its strategy of connecting users through entertainment--which now includes both original programming and traditional media content--encroaches more on the territory of No. 1 ranked MySpace than No. 2 ranked Facebook. MySpace distributes content from News Corp.'s own Fox Studios in addition to hosting Hulu.com. It also produces original content.

With Open, Bebo's partners will keep ad revenue gleaned from their own material; the social network benefits by keeping users at its site for longer. According to comScore, MySpace drew 107 million worldwide visitors in September, followed by Facebook with 73.5 million and Bebo with 19.7 million.

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