For months, MySpace has played down the phenomenal growth of rival Facebook. The former university network this summer posted annual UK growth of 2,146 percent (according to comScore),  while some users of MySpace - growing slower at 149 percent per year - appear to be switching sites. But Jamie Kantrowitz, MySpace’s senior vice president for European marketing and content, in an in-depth interview to mark the launch of paidContent:UK, insists “there’s a place for everything”. Some excerpts:

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Facebook: “It’s a very viral, very engaging piece of technology. I don’t think that necessarily means that it’s going to kill every other social network ... Someone’s MySpace page is much more an expression of their identity than a Facebook page ... It’s more of a social software technology company, while we’re still fundamentally based on self-expression and culture and community ... It’s just opened its network up, of course it’s going to be growing really fast right now.”

MySpace TV: Kantrowitz is “talking to all the major media companies” in Europe to win content for the recently launched YouTube rival, MySpace TV. Differentiating it from the video sharing behemoth: “It’s not really about building the biggest catalogue of video.”

Britpop: MySpace UK has grown to 11 million users since opening a European office in London in April 2006. What’s different? Said Kantrowtiz, a Californian in England: “There’s a great loyalty to music here in a way that actually doesn’t exist in the US. I think that’s definitely reflected in MySpace Music in the UK ... reflects a country with a rooted and deep love for music and rock ‘n roll and how that ties in to culture and society here.”

Bedfellows: Despite expected print partnerships from its acquisition by News Corp, Kantrowitz revealed MySpace has “no formal relationships” with Rupert Murdoch’s newspapers - and ties with the Wall Street Journal are unlikely “unless the young generation magically becomes very, very interested in the financial movements and markets of the world”.

Much more in the transcript.