Japanese internet and telecoms group Softbank Corp and News Corp have set up a 50:50 joint venture to bring the MySpace.com online community site to the Japanese public. The venture will begin next year and the two companies plan to extend the service to make it available to cell phone users. Softbank will be responsible for designing new functions and services for MySpace to suit the needs of the Japanese market, enabling MySpace to challenge market leader Mixi Inc, currently the biggest local player in Japan’s online network services segment, with 5.7 million subscribers at the end of September.