- 14 Avg 2008, 05:00
#1208168
Facebook overtakes MySpace in world
SAN FRANCISCO: Facebook has dethroned MySpace to become the world's most popular social networking website, new industry figures show.
Slightly more than 132 million people visited Facebook in June as compared with the approximately 117.5 million that went to MySpace that month, according to industry tracker comScore.
Facebook seized the social networking crown from News Corp-owned MySpace in April, comScore reported.
However, MySpace continued to extend its lead in the lucrative American market.
MySpace attracted 75 million US unique visitors in July, up 2.5 million from June, according to comScore. Facebook attracted 39 million visitors in July, up 1.7 million.
Facebook's moves to tailor versions of its website to languages other than English is credited with giving it a boost in international users that pushed it to the top of the social networking heap.
“Facebook has done an exceptional job of leveraging its brand internationally during the past year,” comScore vice-president Jack Flanagan said.
“By increasing the site's relevance to local markets through local language interface translation, the site is now competing strongly or even capturing the lead in several markets where it had a relatively minor presence just a year ago.”
Ranks of social network users grew nine per cent in North America but leapt 25 per cent globally to 580.51 million people over the past year, according to comScore.
The number of people using social networking websites climbed 66 per cent in the Middle East-Africa region and 35 per cent in Europe.
Twice as many people visited Hi5 in June as did in the same month a year earlier, while visits to Orkut, Bebo and Friendster increased by more than 30 per cent at each of the social networking websites.
“During the past year, many of the top social networking sites have demonstrated rapid growth in their global user bases,” comScore reported.
“Facebook's recent ascension to become the top global social networking site has been spurred by its substantial growth across worldwide regions.”
Visits to MySpace were up three per cent in the month over month comparison.
While North America has 49 million Facebook users, Europe is “quickly catching up,” according to comScore.
The number of people who visited Facebook in Europe in June was 35.2 million; more than triple what it was in the same month last year.
(AFP)
