comScore released the results of a study on the expansion of social networking across the globe, revealing that several major social networking sites have experienced dramatic growth during the past year. Social networking behemoth MySpace.com attracted more than 114 million global visitors age 15 and older in June, representing a 72% increase versus year ago. Facebook.com experienced even stronger growth during that same time frame, jumping 270% to 52.2 million visitors. Bebo.com (up 172% to 18.2 million visitors) and Tagged.com (up 774% to 13.2 million visitors) also increased by orders of magnitude.
While attracting global users, specific social networks have a tendency to skew in popularity in different regions. For example, both MySpace.com (62%) and Facebook.com (68%) attract approximately two-thirds of their respective audiences from North America. That said, each has already amassed a large international visitor base and both appear poised to continue their global expansion. Bebo.com has a particularly strong grasp on Europe, attracting nearly 63% of its visitors from that region, while Orkut is firmly entrenched in Latin America (49%) and Asia-Pacific (43%). Friendster also attracts a significant proportion of its visitors (89%) from the Asia-Pacific region. Both Hi5.com and Tagged.com exhibit more balance in their respective visitor bases, drawing at least 8% from each of the five worldwide regions.
