Report: MySpace may end commerce ban

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif., Aug. 27 (UPI) -- Rupert Murdoch's MySpace.com social-networking Web site may lift its ban on commerce between its members, a U.S. published report said Monday.

The site's management is discussing the changes behind the scenes, the Los Angeles Times reported.

MySpace currently forbids commerce among its members because it doesn't want to jeopardize the corporate advertising that accounts for most of its profit -- and letting members advertise would clutter the site, the Times said.

"We don't want users' pages to start looking like NASCAR," Chief Executive Chris DeWolfe said.

But Murdoch, whose News Corp. paid $580 million for MySpace's parent company in 2005, said Aug. 8 he wanted to drive up Fox Interactive's profit by a factor of 20, to $200 million from $10 million in the year that ended June 30.

In addition, rival Facebook.com has fewer restrictions on advertising and person-to-person sales, the Times said.