Facebook rises to the top as global popularity for social networking leaps. Image: Facebook.
Not that it will come as a surprise to many, but social networking colossus Facebook has now officially usurped the reign of the once invincible MySpace, surpassing the News Corp-owned network based on June’s global online audience figures.
Facebook unceremoniously shoved MySpace from its throne yesterday when online statistics released by the number crunchers at comScore revealed that Facebook drew a massive 132 million viewers in June, while MySpace managed just 117.5 million.
While June’s figures put clear distance between the two social network heavyweights, comScore has also noted that Facebook first deposed MySpace as far back as April of this year and has experienced a 153 percent growth increase in the last 12 months.
In terms of the ‘how’ and ‘why’ of Facebook’s continuing rise, comScore offers that the network’s decision to deliver its hugely popular community service via a host of foreign language versions has played a significant role in extending the site’s global reach.
“Facebook has done an exceptional job of leveraging its brand internationally during the past year,” commented comScore vice president Jack Flanagan said in an official release.
“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.”
Yet it’s not just Facebook that’s benefiting, with the total global draw and attraction of social networking having increased by a huge 25 percent to 580.51 million people, according to comScore’s figures.
In terms of regional coverage improvements, North America registered a jump of around nine percent, while the Middle East and Africa saw a huge climb of 66 percent and Europe posted an increase of some 35 percent. Latin America registered a user increase of around 33 percent.
Notable networking sites, other than Facebook and MySpace, feeling the positive shift in audience over the last year include the likes of Bebo, Friendster, Hi5, and Orkut.
Hi5.com leads the following pack and has doubled its number of visitors to over 56 million, while Friendster.com users are up by 50 percent, Orkut has grown by 41 percent, and Bebo has pushed forward by 32 percent, according to comScore’s report.
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