comScore report that Facebook had more than 70 million unique visitors, up 97% from May 2008 to May 2009. MySpace hits shrank 5% over the same timeframe, fading to 70,255,000 unique visitors. This week MySpace downsized around 400 employees.

MySpace CEO Owen Van Natta said, “our staffing levels were bloated and hindered our ability to be an efficient and nimble team-oriented company,” 

Emarketer reports that MySpace still dominates Facebook in one important respect—advertising.

MySpace visitors viewed 31.8 million ads in April 2009, accounting for almost 47% of the total social network advertising space.

Facebook was second, serving nearly 25 million ads and making up about 37% of the sector.

Tagged was third, serving 2.4 million ads, or 3.6% of publisher views.

MySpace also led the revenue category, predicted to earn $495 million in 2009, 115% more than its rival.

MySpace entered into an advertising agreement with Google in 2006 that would pay the social network roughly $300 million a year, ending in June 2010. 

TechCrunch reported that a new deal between Google and MySpace would be worth only $50 million to $75 million yearly, punching a big hole in the social network’s revenues.

“Facebook is becoming the go-to social networking site for marketers,” said eMarketer senior analyst Debra Aho Williamson. “While MySpace still has a huge quantity of visitors, they are becoming less relevant for advertisers.”

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Ivan

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