Has YouTube soared past MySpace?
Caroline McCarthy Former Staff writer, CNET News
Caroline McCarthy, a CNET News staff writer, is a downtown Manhattanite happily addicted to social-media tools and restaurant blogs. Her pre-CNET resume includes interning at an IT security firm and brewing cappuccinos.
Last month the big news in Web site traffic was that MySpace had dethroned Yahoo Mail as the most-visited Web site among U.S. users. But as far as worldwide Internet use is concerned, MySpace may still be lagging behind YouTube, according to new research by Web traffic analysis company Alexa.
The numbers from the Alexa study found that YouTube consumes 3.9% of total daily Internet visits, while MySpace is close behind at 3.35%. The video site has experienced staggering growth over the past six months, growing by nearly 300% domestically. Consequently, there's been plenty of speculation that if a major corporation snatched YouTube up, as Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. did to MySpace last year, the price tag could top $1 billion.