—Brad Greenspan, who bought into MySpace as CEO of eUniverse, is looking to raise $50 million in private equity in the UK or China to fund entertainment and social networking projects in Asia. He told Hollywood Reporter that investments through his BroadWebAsia company have so far ranged from $200,000 to $3 million. BroadWebAsia has stakes in 20 Chinese web firms - giving Greenspan access to the Chinese market while bypassing what he described as the difficult regulatory environment and censorship: “We’re working with Chinese entities who have already thought out those issues rather than just trying to create a MySpace 2.0.” The piece puts web access in China at 120 million or 10 per cent of the population - leaving massive potential for growth. Background: As largest shareholder of MySpace parent Intermix (formerly eUniverse), Greenspan tried to block News Corp’s acquisition  because he said $580 million was not enough. Given the $900 million ad deal with Google, he might be feeling vindicated.
—Another week, another social networking site: Minti formally launched this week after five months in Beta, and it’s pitched at parents with diaper/weaning/tantrum dilemmas. Minti is owned by Vibe Capital of Perth, Australia who raised $1.2 million in funding earlier this year. Vibe claims to be negotiating to license its technology to other web community start-ups, as well as launching more niche social net sites.
—Channel 4 UK is linking up with Bebo: Gemma Davies was kicked off The X-Factor twice (a hint, perhaps?) - so now she’s off be the star of a Channel 4 show as she tries to make it famous through UK’s biggest social network site Bebo. The show will be presented by Shaa Wasmund, Bebo’s strategic director.
—A bunch of bands, including Kasabian, Basement Jaxx and The Fratellis, and plugging their new albums through MySpace ahead of the official release date. What interests me is the whole straight-to-the-music-fan relationship. The UK’s favourite MySpace darling Lily Allen (please check out Little Things...) with characteristic typos a plenty, is straight up on her MySpace blog. A few months back she apologised for terrible sound quality at her gig: “I sang my smoke-infested little lungs out and it made no difference. To all of you who paid to get in, hit me back with a message or something and I’ll send you a mixtape or a t-shirt.” You can be skeptical about how ‘real’ her posts are but the kids love it. Hollywood could do with a bit of that kind of intimacy.