Facebook Overtakes MySpace

Facebook has raced ahead of MySpace with nine million more unique users worldwide , according to figures released from ComScore.

The social networking site has grown from 47.2 million visitors in May last year to 123.9 million in May this year, a rate of 162%, while MySpace has only grown 5% to 114.6 million in the same period.

This comes just a month after Facebook was reported to be the most popular social networking site in the UK with a 7.2% rise in unique users from March to April this year (see Facebook Remains UK’s Most Popular Social Networking Site).

Facebook’s first official recruit and product development head – Matt Cohler – left the company last week, following the departure of another original chief executive member Adam D’Angelo in May.

Although it is a private company and does not reveal official sales or profits, Facebook is expected to make up to $350 million global sales this year – up from $150 million last year, according to the Financial Times.

The last figures published by Nielsen Online in April 2008 show that Facebook had 10 million unique users in the UK that month.

However, the last time MySpace appeared on Nielsen’s top 50 brand sites was in September 2007 with 6.3 million users (this information is available in MediaTel’s Online database – see mediatelgroup.co.uk).

Facebook: www.facebook.com MySpace: www.myspace.com