MySpace more popular than Yahoo and Google

13-07-2006

by Charlie Taylor

Online social network MySpace.com has become the most popular website in the US, according to new figures from internet traffic measurement firm Hitwise.

The website, which was acquired by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp in a USD580 million deal last summer, accounted for 4.46 percent of all internet visits in the US during the week ending 8 July, making it the number one ranked site in the country.

MySpace pushed Yahoo Mail into second place. Yahoo's online e-mail service accounted for 4.42 percent of total traffic last week while the search giant's homepage drew 4.25 percent of all internet visits in the US. Google continues to be popular with users, and it accounted for 3.89 percent of total traffic last week.

The latest figures indicate exactly just how popular MySpace has become with internet users in the US over the past two years. Back in July 2004, the website accounted for just 0.1 percent of all internet visits. Since then it's grown to become the leading social networking website both in the US and elsewhere.

According to Alexa Internet, an Amazon subsidiary which monitors internet traffic, MySpace is now the fourth most popular website with internet users, behind Yahoo, MSN and Google.

Among social networking sites in the US in June, MySpace accounted for 79.9 percent of the total market share of visits. Following MySpace, was Facebook which received 7.5 percent of visits. Ranked third was Xanga with 3.8 percent. Yahoo 360 and Bebo rounded out the top five sites with 1.1 and 0.98 percent respectively. The remaining social networking websites accounted for 6.5 percent of U.S. visits.

"MySpace continues its meteoric rise, to now claim the number one spot for all internet visits in the US," said Bill Tancer, general manager of Global Research at Hitwise. "We are still discovering the internet laws of gravity as it relates to a site's potential to grow on the internet. The fact that MySpace was virtually unknown by the mainstream internet users two years ago and now claims the top position, demonstrates how hyper-competitive the internet really is," he added.