Watch out gringos, MySpace goes Spanish

MySpace has announced the beta launch of “MySpace en Español“, a new Spanish-language version of MySpace for US-based Hispanics. MySpace also revealed a new pan-regional site in Spanish for Latin American residents, as well as further development plans for localized communities in Mexico and Brazil.

“We’re moving rapidly to build communities that reflect and respect the lifestyles of our diverse members,” said Travis Katz, Senior Vice President and General Manager of MySpace International.

“MySpace en Español opens the community even wider, giving our Hispanic members the choice to share their experiences, connect with family members, and plan their social lives in either Spanish or English. We look forward to getting their feedback as we build out these new cultural communities.”

MySpace en Español will spotlight content, programming, artists and users relevant to the US Hispanic MySpace population, as well as a Spanish language version of the MySpace instant messaging client.

The company also announced today, MySpace Latinoamérica, a pan-regional site in Spanish for Latin American users. More than 150 million residents from across Latin America can now access MySpace in Spanish through the new localized community.

Across Latin America, MySpace will be working with local teams to develop relevant programming and unique partnerships most relevant for each country’s user base. MySpace also announced today that it has plans to launch a Brazilian site this summer and will be ready to officially launch MySpace Mexico, currently in beta, in the coming months.

According to last month’s Nielsen Netratings, 43% of all U.S. based Hispanic Internet users are visiting MySpace and the site is among the country’s top 5 most visited sites by the Hispanic Web population.

MySpace’s own internal numbers show that more than six million members have indicated their origin as either Latino(a) and/or Hispanic in the United States alone.

It’s about time a Latino version of MySpace was launched. If the gringo version of MySpace is cool, just imagine how cool the Latino version will be.