Facebook twice as popular as MySpace

Facebook has more friends that MySpace
Facebook has more friends that MySpace

Facebook is conclusively winning the social-networking battle if recent figures are to be believed, with the website having twice as many visits as its nearest rival MySpace.

Rupert Murdoch purchased MySpace back in 2005, when it was just a year old, for the princely sum of $580 million.

In 2006, it was officially the biggest social-networking site in the US, but since June 2008 and the rise of Facebook's popularity in the UK particularly, MySpace has been stuck firmly in the number two spot.

Facebook dominance

Although MySpace only saw a two per cent drop in traffic last month, it was a significant one. Recent figures by comScore show that Facebook is way out in front, with 276 million unique visitors, compared to MySpace's 124 million uniques.

For Facebook to have such a lead over its nearest rival must be worrying for MySpace who, despite diversifying into music streaming, is playing catch-up when it comes to audience share.

A boardroom shake-up of the site isn't helping either. Three senior executives have left MySpace recently, including its Chief Operating Officer Amit Kapur.

The website's founders Chris DeWolfe and Tom Anderson will see their contracts come to an end this October, so it will be interesting to see if the pair stay on to steer the site back to the heralded number one spot.

Marc Chacksfield

Marc Chacksfield is the Editor In Chief, Shortlist.com at DC Thomson. He started out life as a movie writer for numerous (now defunct) magazines and soon found himself online - editing a gaggle of gadget sites, including TechRadar, Digital Camera World and Tom's Guide UK. At Shortlist you'll find him mostly writing about movies and tech, so no change there then.