Before I show you the chart though, I want to highlight the fact that on a worldwide scale the use of social networks increased at a 25% rate compared to last year. Take a look at the whole breakdown by region;

King of the castle? FACEBOOK. As you know, it has taken over the lead since April and proceeding the launch of its interface in the different languages as an effort to penetrate the different target audiences across numerous regions, it underwent a drastic growth of 153% since last year.

Surprisingly in second place, sits MySpace with a mere 3% growth rate, followed by Hi5 with a 100% increase, doubling its user base from 2007 to 2008. Holding 4th, 5th and 6th places we have Friendster, Orkut and Bebo displaying growth rates of 50%, 41% and 32% respectively.

Back to Facebook. The chart tells us exactly which region Facebook is strongest in, that would be the US. However, the greatest increase in visitor base originated from Latin America, generating an outstanding 1055% increase since the previous year.  Go Latinos! :-)

I guess opening up to the ENTIRE Internet audience had quite a positive impact on Facebook, thus becoming the leading social networking site in the world as we speak.