The world's most popular social-networking site, MySpace, was officially launched in India last week with a rock show.

MySpace India has around half a million users. It boasts Indian superstar Shah Rukh Khan as its registered member and is trying to position itself as an entertainment site.

MySpace's managing director (International) Travis Katz said:

"We will provide the necessary tools to the people of India to live their lives online and offer a launch pad to the creators from developers to musicians and filmmakers to showcase their talents on the global stage."

MySpace India will offer music through its partnership with a well-known India music label SaReGaMa. Another industry alliance is a partnership with India's largest television network Star TV. In partnership with Star TV, it has created a talent show called Campus Star, a nationwide college competition featuring celebrity judges and voting by MySpace audience.

MySpace also has a developer program for Indian developers to develop customized applications for the social-networking portal. The site is relatively late to arrive on the social-networking scene in India as compared with Orkut and Facebook. But Tarun Tripathi, director (Marketing and Content) of MySpace India, contends otherwise:

"We're not tackling Orkut, we're not tackling Facebook. MySpace is supporting content in India, and that's what we are about. We're just going to do our own thing as we very strongly believe in it," said Tripathi on the competition.

On positioning vis-a-vis other social-networking Web sites, he said: "MySpace has become famous for music but there is no reason why the same platform cannot be used for any person who is creative, be it a writer, filmmaker, musician or designer. Anybody who has anything to say can say it through MySpace." However, the musical inclination made doing a rock show shows the perfect fit, according to Tripathi, besides showcasing some kick-ass Indian music.

Although it's, indeed, a late entrant, it could do well by positioning itself as an entertainment destination. Orkut does not have any positioning, while Facebook seems complicated to many Indian users.