MySpace-Facebook battle continues in U.S.

Posted by Erina Lin on January 13, 2009 at 9:11 PM

According to comScore's year-end numbers, MySpace is still leading in the U.S. online social networking market, but Facebook is growing, although slowly, CNet reported.

Michael Arrington at TechCrunch estimated that if the current growth rate remains, Facebook's U.S. audience will exceed MySpace's early in 2010.

In the United States, growth for both sites has cooled down. Facebook's average monthly growth rate was 3.8 percent, with most of its rapid growth coming from overseas. MySpace's was only 0.8 percent, CNet reported.

Some other firms, such as Pingdom, predicted that Facebook will overtake MySpace in the United States much sooner. In the global market, Facebook has been ahead for months, with more than 150 million users.

Although Facebook will catch up in unique visitors in the United States, Arrington pointed out that the more media-centric MySpace is leading on page views, with 40 billion in December, versus Facebook's 18 billion.

MySpace also leads in time spent per visit, with about twice as much, mostly due to having online music streaming and a video portal. It also has an advantage in advertising due to its media consumption focus and stronger U.S. base, CNet reported.