A USA Today\narticle reveals that MySpace has now reached 47.3 million members. The Blog Herald\nalso reports that MySpace \"is growing by an amazing 160,000 new users a day,\naccording to MediaPost\".

USA Today gives a rundown of numbers for SNS sites, c/o comScore Media Metrix. They note that \"in the past year, the number of visitors to MySpace (from homes, workplaces\nand colleges) has skyrocketed, making it the Web’s top social networking\nsite\":

MySpace.com
\nNov. 2004: 4.9 million
\nNov. 2005: 26.7 million

\n

Facebook.com
\nNov. 2004: N/A
\nNov. 2005: 11.1 million

\nXanga.com
\nNov. 2004: 5.8 million
\nNov. 2005: 7.9 million

\nBebo.com
\nNov. 2004: N/A
\nNov. 2005: 1.5 million

\nFriendster.com
\nNov. 2004: 966,000
\nNov. 2005: 1.5 million

\nTribe Networks Inc.
\nNov. 2004: 62,000
\nNov. 2005: 515,000

\nLinkedin.com
\nNov. 2004: 123,000
\nNov. 2005: 354,188

\nOrkut.com
\nNov. 2004: N/A
\nNov. 2005: 83,000

\nSource: comScore Media Metrix, a division of comScore Networks, Inc.

For some reason, USA Today didn't include LiveJournal in their chart. According to official stats, LiveJournal currently has\n9 million user accounts - but only a little under 2 million are \"active\". That would put\nLJ at number 3 or 4 in the above chart.

The demographics of SNS sites are interesting. LiveJournal users are skewed to 16-20\nyears and are 2/3 female. MySpace is said to be mostly < 22 yrs and general\nconsensus is that it's a younger user base than LJ.

All of these SNS services have a\nvery young user base, so in many ways it's a battle for the hearts and minds of\nGeneration Y and beyond. MySpace may be winning in numbers, but recent controversy shows they can't\nget complacent.