MySpace’s general manager of Europe and Australia Rebekah Horne has been promoted to head the social networking site internationally, and will lead the company from Australia.

MySpace current international boss Travis Katz is set to leave the company, with Horne taking over as managing director and senior vice-president of international.

Horne has been splitting her time between London and Los Angeles but is set to return to Australia in August where she will be based to lead MySpace internationally, something of a coup for its office here.

Horne promoted to her joint Europe and Australia role in July last year. Her ascension through the News Interactive’s executive ranks has been swift, joining as MySpace Australia and New Zealand’s marketing manager in 2006 and presiding over the local Australian launch in August of that year.

It will be a challenging role for the as MySpace faces declining traffic numbers and influence, even branded as a 'digital ghetto' by some commentators.  However MySpace's greatest challenge may be an identity crisis according to CEO Owen Van Natta. In an email to staff he said.

"Our users don’t know if we’re a social portal, a music site, or an entertainment hub...simplifying and unifying our site is fundamental to our success going forward. MySpace should feel like one platform - not 15 sites loosely stitched together. We consider our diverse content offering a strength but too many logos and disorganized verticals makes the site difficult to navigate and creates confusion about our brand identity."

This identity crisis and lack of coherent design, which is at the core of the website's functionality, may be responsible for MySpace's decline. MySpace's market share of Australian websites has declined from 1.8% to 1.1% in the last 12 months (Hitwise).