By Emma Barnett Published: 5:46PM BST 22 Oct 2009  Owen Van Natta has the challenge of turning round the fortunes of MySpace Photo: Frank Micelotta/PictureGroup  The man whose energy levels saw him dubbed "superman" by some colleagues soon got what he wanted with the top job at MySpace. Although still one of the most visited websites with more than 100m unique users globally, MySpace is having a hard time keeping existing users, let alone attracting new ones. Van Natta, who started there in April, faces the challenge of turning round its fortunes.  Even though MySpace's has always been more popular in the US than the UK, the News Corporation-owned website saw its share of social network traffic in September fall from 66pc a year ago to 30pc, according to HitWise figures. Facebook, on the other hand, accounted for more than 58pc of US social network traffic, and has more than 300m unique users worldwide.  Concerns have also been raised about its future by high-profile names such as former Wall Street darling Henry Blodget, who said in his blog earlier this month that "MySpace might actually be worth next to nothing". Citing Lycos, Infoseek and Excite, he said that instances in which a former world-beating online company has "lost its mojo and then come roaring back to health are rare".  Van Natta has not done media profiles since taking over the chief executive role from MySpace founder, Chris DeWolfe. And that's probably how Rupert Murdoch, the chairman and chief executive of News Corporation, likes it, considering Van Natta's first job was to sack more than 30pc of MySpace's workforce and tear up the previous management team's plans. Not the easiest first few months.  However, its clear why he got the job of rescuing Murdoch's largest digital purchase, for which he paid $580m (£351m) in 2005. Van Natta is bright and a safe pair of hands. He is also optimistic, which is helpful when battling the has-been factor and your former employer in the popularity stakes. But nearly six months in, what is his grand plan to save MySpace?  When pressed, Van Natta admits the previous team lost sight of what MySpace was good at and did not react quickly to users' changing needs.  "It was clear to me from the outside that MySpace served a very different role to Facebook and yet the strategy wasn't focused enough on the areas it excels in. It was a mile long but only an inch deep," he says. "Facebook is about core communications with your friendship network, whereas MySpace is about congregating around popular content with people who share your interests. I stripped everything back and removed services, like the jobs board, which were not core."  MySpace, he says, is now a platform where people socialise around content. Van Natta wants MySpace to become the place where people find and share music, TV, film and games content.  He has just announced at the Web 2.0 conference this week in San Francisco that MySpace's US users can now purchase music via iTunes without leaving the site and the launch of dashboard – an analytics feature for bands, as well as the MySpace Music video hub.  "It is the springboard from which we will launch everything else in the other genres," says Van Natta. But surely music was always MySpace's heartland, with many UK artists, such as Lily Allen, rising to fame via the service? Is he not trying to attract new users and revenue streams, rather than re-endear MySpace to those who used to love it?  People already share and embed TV content across MySpace, although the service has yet to sign formal deals with film and TV companies. However, it is not a far-fetched notion that this could soon be reality, as Van Natta explains MySpace's position in News Corp's eco-system: "News Corp is the biggest content company on the planet and is committed to building MySpace into the leading next-generation digital distribution platform. It's very much in its interests."  But how is MySpace going monetise this socialising content concept? Van Natta says it will do so with a mixture of revenue-sharing deals with content owners and clever advertising. But isn't there a chance paywalls could go up, in line with Murdoch's strategy elsewhere?  "We certainly can see a world where transactions become a meaningful part of the social experience. And if there is content out there online that people are paying for and we can socialise it, I don't think it would be free on our site, for example, offering full-length movies." It's not improbable to suppose News Corp's Fox unit could cut Van Natta an attractive movie distribution deal.  But with the $900m search advertising deal MySpace struck with Google in 2006 – which expires next year and set to be far less lucrative this time – the pressure to deliver commercially is no doubt intensifying. And yet Van Natta remains confident that the power of MySpace's people, platform and product will win out.  "The great thing about our industry is we don't need to rely upon traditional marketing, as we have users, who when they are satisfied, will get the message out there for us. We are launching a raft of new products and feature functionality over the next three months which I know will shift the momentum back and make us more relevant to more people."  In any market, it is difficult to win people back once they have gone elsewhere. Surely now MySpace has accepted it has lost the social networking war to Facebook, and is focusing on content, a partnership with Facebook would be a smart move? Van Natta agrees, saying he speaks with Facebook and others. "Partnerships are going to be a big part of our strategy moving forward as a lot of value can be derived from them," he says. If MySpace subtly makes its presence felt on platforms where their lost users are spending time, it could be an effective method to regaining the glory that helped woo Murdoch.  Van Natta wanted to be a chief executive of a big digital consumer web brand but, now that he is, he is having to fight every step of the way. He says that News Corp understands that challenges of such magnitude are not resolved overnight. However, being responsible for repositioning a former digital darling in today's fickle world is not a challenge for the fainthearted – even if your nickname is superman.  Lives: Palo Alto, and Los Angeles  Family: wife and two daughters  Hobbies: spending time at the beach, relaxing with family, live music, running and tennis  Music: Led Zeppelin, The Doors, Jack Johnson, Dave Matthews Band
When Owen Van Natta left his role as chief revenue officer at Facebook last    year, his goal was to become chief executive of a major consumer web    company.