MySpace announces more job cuts

By Dan Whitworth
Newsbeat technology reporter

MySpace has culled about 40% of its staff in the last few weeks

Just a week after MySpace said it was cutting a third of its American workforce, the social networking site has announced more jobs cuts.

This time around 300 will go - about two thirds of its overseas staff.

There are no specific details on where the jobs will be cut, but at least four foreign offices will close allowing it to concentrate on bigger, regional hubs in London, Berlin and Sydney.

Altogether, the cuts will leave MySpace with roughly 1150 staff worldwide - a drop of about 40% from the 1900 people it employed just two weeks ago.

MySpace has 34 localised versions in 28 countries and it's likely staff in places like France, Italy, Canada and Spain will lose out.

According to its chief executive, former Facebook employee Owen Van Natta, who started at MySpace in April, it's part of a drive to reduce staff numbers to a similar level of those of Facebook.

MySpace's staffing had become too big and cumbersome Owen Van Natta, MySpace boss

He said: "As we conducted our review of the company, it was clear that internationally, just as in the US, MySpace's staffing had become too big and cumbersome to be sustainable in current market conditions".

One element of those "current market conditions" is a reference to falling revenues from advertising.

Although MySpace doesn't release figures, it's estimated to have made £360 million from advertising last year.

But that figure is expected to drop sharply as it struggles to maintain its user base of 125 million members.

At the same time, the money its main competitor Facebook makes is expected to rise from the £150 million it took last year as its members doubled, to more than £200 million this year.