Social networking has become one of the popular online activities for worldwide internet users. According to comScore, social networking users grew at 25% from June 2007 to June 2008 and the number increased from 0.46 to 0.58 billion. According to Hitwise, myspace.com is continuing as social networking market leader with 72% of market share, followed by Facebook.com with 16.91% of market share.

Worldwide users of social networking sites increased by 25%
Social networking sites are being visited by millions of users every day. Worldwide users of social networking increased by 25% when compared to 2007. Overall increase of users is high in Middle East Africa with 66% of growth and the users in Europe increased by 35% when compared to last year.

MySpace.com continues as market leader with 72% of market share
According to Hitwise, Myspace.com continues as market leader with 72% of market share but its share has been decreased by 5% from last year. Market share of Myspace.com was 77% in June 2007 and it is 72% in June 2008. Facebook.com is the second leading site with 16.91% market share increased by 40% compared to last year. MyYear.com is in third position with market share of 1.54% and Tagged is in forth position with a share of 1.08%. Bebo is in fifth position in social networking sites with 1.05% market share.

Facebook.com users increased by 153%
During last year, many social networking sites have demonstrated rapid growth in their global users. Facebook.com has taken over the global lead among social networking sites in April 2008. Increase of growth for Facebook.com is about 153% when compared to 2007, with 0.132 billion users. Myspace.com growth rate of visitors is increased by only 3% as it failed to improve the new visitor’s rate when compared to last year.

Age group of 18-25 years is active participant in social networking
According to Rapleaf.com, a considerable number of users of social networking sites is between 18-24 years. For facebook.com, 52% of total users are between the age group of 18-25years, for mySpace.com. 40% of users are between 18-25 years and for Hi5.com 44% of users are between 18-25 years. Age group between 26-35 years follows the active participants in visiting the social networking sites.

Women visit more social networking sites than men
According to Rapleaf.com, women visit social networking sites more frequently than men. On an average of top 6 social networking sites users, females are 58.2% in total users and remaining 41.8% users are male. For Facebook.com, 63% of total users are female and 36% are male and for mySpace.com, 63% of total users are female and 36% of users are male. For Hi5, 60% of users are female and 40% of users are male.

Social networking sites have grown to enormous levels over last few years. Social networking is being used regularly by millions of people to stay in contact with their dear ones. By the vast growth of social networking sites, corporate and businesses are also realizing the role of social networking in expanding their customer relations.