VivirLatino

About 2 years ago we told you about MySpace’s bid for Latino market share, aptly named “MySpace Latino”. Back then, MySpace was leading the social networking revolution, but fast forward to today, and we find that MySpace “original” is becoming more irrelevant by the minute in the shadow of Facebook. Perhaps that’s why the Latino version of the service might be going the way of the Walkman. GigaOm’s Jennifer Martinez reports:

As MySpace struggles to regain ground it’s lost to Facebook and sort out its revenue woes, executive departures from MySpace Latino, a combination Spanish-English site targeted at U.S.-based Latinos that launched a little over a year ago, indicate it may be on the chopping block. MySpace Latino’s VP of Hispanic sales and strategy, Manny Miravete, has left the company, and the site’s managing director, Victor Kong, has reportedly left as well. The site itself hasn’t been refreshed in over a week amid a wave of layoffs at MySpace’s U.S. and international offices.

I’m not sure how successful the Latino version was, but it’s no loss to me. I never touched it, and I don’t know anyone who did. This is an instance in which the brand didn’t need to niche itself out to appeal to Latinos – it did it just to please advertisers who wanted to target the Latino segment. Disingenuous attempts at catering to an audience are seldom successful, and much less when the main brand is already creaking under the weight of one hefty competitor and a series of dispersed services and sites that have innovated while MySpace has remained asleep at the wheel.

Martínez also reports that an email statement from MySpace says that the site will “remain live and not shut down” and that MySpace Latino is merely “restructuring”. Whatever the case, I won’t be visiting anytime soon.

The phenomenon apparently extends beyond the U.S. Latino operation. Late last month it was reported that MySpace Brazil, Mexico and Argentina would also be shutting down. That was quick.

Via / GigaOm and Salon