Facebook overtakes MySpace, awaits passive aggressive status update in response : Tech Digest

New figures out today suggest that Facebook has supplanted MySpace as the world's most popular social network, boasting 132m people in June versus MySpace's 117.5m. A spokesperson for MySpace said in reaction to the news "It's not fair, everyone hates me, the only person who understands me is Gerard Way from My Chemical Romance. Mood: Sad & Depressed :("

This is actually the result of explosive growth by Facebook - MySpace still had a 3% increase in June but is growing at a much slower rate compared to its competitor. The experts have attributed this to Facebook's localised foreign-language versions and attracting more international users. I however, reckon it has more to do with the "emo" backlash and Facebook's unique selling point of "not being terrible".

It has been a good year for social networking websites generally though, with a 25% increase in users worldwide to 580.51m people - or about one 14th of the world's entire population. That's an increase of 35% in Europe, 9% in North America, and an impressive 66% in the Middle East and Africa.

Some of the social networks we don't bother with over here are doing well too - Hi5 has doubled its traffic, and Bebo, Friendster and Orkut (which is apparently massive in Brazil), receiving a 30% boost.

I'm still looking forward to the day the world realises that Twitter is the way forward.

Current Mood: Hungry
Current Song: Band Aid - Feed the world

(via Yahoo)