• TechCrunch , Friday, January 23, 2009 11:45 AM

Facebook is now nearly twice as big as its closest rival, News Corp.'s MySpace, Michael Arrington reports. In December, the social networking leader drew 222 million unique users, according to comScore, at a 10.8% month over month gain. More than 1 in 5 people who accessed the Internet in December went to Facebook.

Arrington points out that Facebook now has nearly 100 million more worldwide users than MySpace, which after adding 4 million new users in December had 125 million members total. Facebook also had twice the number of page views in December: 80 billion versus 43 billion for MySpace. Arrington notes that only six months ago, the companies were neck-in-neck.

All this means that Facebook is now "the world's default social network," says Arrington, even though MySpace is still on top in the U.S. However, he points out that even that is likely to change by the end of this year. What does MySpace have to say about that? Says a company spokesperson: "We are laser focused on building a sustainable global business which we measure by profits and revenue--not just eyeballs. In a tough economic climate, our international revenue is up 30% year over year and we continue to focus on those markets with the strong monetization opportunities. Additionally, MySpace continues to dominate the U.S. market-where the bulk of online advertising revenues reside-both in terms of monetization and user engagement with more than 76 million unique users and a 40% spike in engagement year over year."

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