MySpace, the world’s largest online social network, will launch its program to court outside software developers in February in a bid to widen the gap against rival Facebook.

As part of the February 5 launch, it has also promoted MySpace business development executive Amit Kapur to a new role as chief operating officer, the company will announce on Wednesday.

Over the past year, rival Facebook has moved aggressively to close the gap between it and MySpace, a division of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.

Developers have cited, as one reason for Facebook’s rapid growth, its policy of opening up its platform to entrepreneurs to profit from creating applications from the silly — like the ability to throw sheep at each other — to the functional, such as sharing photos.

Although few details were furnished ahead of MySpace’s official launch of its platform, Kapur said the developer program would be rolled out globally in about 28 territories.