Kylie Minogue is to challenge Facebook by becoming the first star to create a social-networking site.

KylieKonnect, which goes online today, is designed to allow the singer’s fans to create personal profiles, upload images and blogs, and connect with other fans across the globe using their mobile phone or web browser.

Minogue, 39, has been working with web experts to create a site that incorporates the social networking aspects of Facebook and MySpace, used by more than ten million Britons, while enhancing the Kylie brand.

The move comes after Guy Hands, the new head of EMI, Minogue’s record company, said that artists had to work harder to reach their fans through digital means or face being dropped in an era of declining CD sales.

Dan Duncombe, head of digital at the EMI label Parlophone, said: “Social networking via mobile has gained real momentum in the past year with increasing numbers of people accessing their accounts while on the move. However, this is a first for a global recording artist to create their own social-networking brand.”

Minogue’s own profile is added automatically as a friend to anyone who joins her network. Fans will also be able to upload their own photos and videos, discuss her latest fashion adventures, download new songs direct to phones and be given the chance to buy concert tickets and meet the star.

New Visions Mobile, the company that designed KylieKonnect, said it was employing new technology that allowed users to create and manage their web pages directly from their mobile handset. Minogue has promised to update her blog regularly.

The singer, who releases her new single 2 Hearts as a download today, is hoping that the power of her brand will drive web users from Facebook, which has overtaken MySpace to become Britain’s most popular social-networking site.

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