During the past year, as per comScore, many of the top social networking sites have demonstrated rapid growth in their global user bases. Facebook, which took over the global lead among social networking sites in April 2008, has made a concerted effort to become more culturally relevant in markets outside the U.S. Its introduction of natural language interfaces in several markets has helped propel the site to 153-percent growth during the past year. Meanwhile, the emphasis Hi5.com has put on its full-scale localization strategy has helped the site double its visitor base to more than 56 million.

Facebook’s recent ascension to become the top global social networking site has been spurred by its substantial growth across worldwide regions. Though its largest visitor base is still in North America (49 million), Facebook’s growth in the region is a relatively modest 38%.

Europe is quickly catching up with North America as Facebook’s largest visitor base with 35 million visitors in June, a 303-percent increase and a net addition of nearly 27 million monthly visitors versus year ago.

Worldwide Growth for Facebook.com
June 2008 vs. June 2007
Total Worldwide Audience, Age 15+
Home and Work Locations
Source: comScore World Metrix

Other social networking sites, including Friendster.com (up 50%), Orkut (up 41%), and Bebo.com (up 32%) have demonstrated particularly strong growth on a global basis.