Facebook is trouncing MySpace in the global social networking war, drawing in nearly twice as many unique visitors as its arch rival, new figures show.
In December, over 220 million people visited Facebook worldwide compared to around 125 million for MySpace, according to data from internet marketing research company comScore cited by technology site TechCrunch .
Facebook's numbers represent a nearly 11 per cent increase on the previous month when it drew 200 million unique visitors, evidence the site's popularity continues to soar. In December, over a fifth of all web users visited Facebook, TechCrunch reports.
About eight months ago, the net's two biggest social networking sites were pretty evenly matched in terms of unique visitors. Now Facebook has nearly 100 million more worldwide than MySpace, which is owned by News Corp.
The difference in page views is even more accentuated with Facebook, which remains in private hands, attracting 80 billion monthly page views in December compared with 43 billion for MySpace.
The global picture, however, is different than for the US where MySpace remains on top, although Facebook is catching up, according to comScore statistics on US traffic released earlier this month.
"Facebook is the world's default social network. MySpace is still the king in the US, but trends suggest that 2009 is its last year on top," TechCrunch predicts. "By January 2010, at current relative growth rates, Facebook will overtake MySpace as the largest U.S. social network as well."
In a statement to the technology site, MySpace said it was "laser focused on building a sustainable global business which we measure by profits and revenue - not just eyeballs" and emphasised its revenue building credentials.
"In a tough economic climate, our international revenue is up 35 percent year over year and we continue to focus on those markets with the strong monetization opportunities.
"Additionally, MySpace continues to dominate the U.S. market where the bulk of online advertising revenues reside both in terms of monetization and user engagement with more than 76 million unique users and a 40 percent spike in engagement year over year."
Source: Telegraph
