Information from an internal meeting of MSN China revealed that Chen Xiao, vice president of sales for MSN China, has resigned and will start his own business in the Chinese Internet sector.

According to public files, Chen once worked for the Chinese search engine firm Baidu.com as director of marketing in 2000. In 2004, he oversaw MSN's preparation for the entry into the Chinese market, and in May 2005 he was appointed vice president for MSN China, commanding the online marketing business of the company.

MSN China, which was launched in 2005 with local partners, ran into trouble last year when its micro-blogging site Juku, which was created by an independent vendor, was accused of copying code from a Canadian micro-blogging service provider named Plurk. Juku was then subsequently suspended by Microsoft, the owner of MSN China.