Xiao Chen, MSN China’s Vice-President of sales who has been with the company since its inception, will leave at the end of March to pursue his own start-up, a Microsoft spokeswoman told Reuters.

MSN China, which was launched in 2005 with local partners, is struggling to compete against QQ, a chat messaging and social network operated by Tencent Holdings, China’s most valuable Internet company.

MSN China ran into trouble late last year when its microblogging site, Juku — created by an independent vendor — was accused of copying another start-up. Microsoft subsequently suspended the service.

For its part, software giant Microsoft is pinning its China hopes on search engine Bing, currently a minnow in China’s 7.2 billion yuan ($1.1 billion) search market.

Microsoft said earlier this month it will stick to its strategy for China’s Internet search market regardless of the outcome of Google’s high-profile spat with Beijing.

Motorola Inc said last week it has reached a deal with Microsoft to put Bing search and mapping services on its phones that use Google’s Android operating system.

Source : Konaxis