Facebook dethrones MySpace in the world of social networking

Melbourne, Aug 14 : Displacing MySpace from the top position, Facebook has now become the world's most popular social networking website, according to new industry figures.

Industry tracker comScore revealed that over 132 million people visited Facebook in June as against 117.5 million logging on MySpace in the same period.

Not only did it dethrone the News Corp-owned MySpace in April, Facebook is still the favourite in the lucrative American market. ComScore figures showed that while MySpace attracted 75 million US unique visitors in July, up 2.5 million from June, Facebook reigned with 39 million visitors in July, up 1.7 million. It is believed that Facebook's attempt to lure international users with tailor versions of its website to languages other than English, is what helped it to make it to the topspot.

"Facebook has done an exceptional job of leveraging its brand internationally during the past year," The Australian quoted comScore vice-president Jack Flanagan, as saying.

He added: "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."

"Facebook's recent ascension to become the top global social networking site has been spurred by its substantial growth across worldwide regions," comScore reported.

According to comScore, while North America has 49 million Facebook users, Europe is "quickly catching up."

The number of people who visited Facebook in Europe in June was 35.2 million; more than triple what it was in the same month last year.

ANI