MySpace remains the most popular social network

by Andrew McCormick, Media Week 01-Aug-07, 11:30

LONDON - MySpace has comfortably held on to the crown of most popular social network in the world, recording more than double the amount of global users than Facebook, according to the latest statistics from research firm comScore.

MySpace had 114m users worldwide in June 2007, an increase of 72% compared to June 2006, but faces an increased challenge from Facebook which recorded a 270% increase in unique users during the same period.

Facebook had 52m unique users in June 2007, according to comScore, but the vast majority of its user base is based outside Europe. Only 16.8% of Facebook's traffic comes from European users compared to a quarter of all MySpace users and 62.5% of Bebo's.

Tagged.com experienced the highest growth of the top social networks, the study found, increasing from 1.5m users in June 2006 to 13m in June 2007.

ComScore's data fails to measure accounts held by under 15 year-olds and therefore does not pick up the whole user base of sites like Bebo and Piczo, that have a young audience.