It certainly is bad news for MySpace! The New York based internet traffic monitor Hitwise says that the popularity of social networking site Facebook is growing in the United States. According to a new report from Hitwise, the Facebook's US internet traffic surged 149 percent in February, 2009, as compared to the internet traffic in February, 2008.

The report from Hitwise articulates that the surged internet traffic enhanced the Facebook's market share in United States to 36 percent last month, from 14 percent in February 2008.

The Hitwise report states that Facebook is definitely surging against the United States' number on social networking site MySpace, but it remained at number two position last month. The report says that MySpace received 52 percent of US visits in February, 2009, and its market share dropped 28 percent, from its market share of 73 percent in February, 2008.

According to Hitwise, it tracked the US visits to the 55 social-networking sites to bring out its report, which shows that overall US visits to social-networking sites increased just 4 percent in February, 2009, versus February, 2008.

The Hitwise report also articulates that Facebook received 29 percent were young US visitors aging between 18 and
24 years, in February, 2009, 27 percent down from 27 February, 2008. The percentage of young US visitors dropped, but still they were top US visitors on the social network Facebook. The report also reveals that Facebook saw the 10 percent increase in the older US visitors from all demographic groups, last month. However, the percentage of the older US visitors on MySpace remained flat last month.

The report states that the average time spent by the US visitors on MySpace and Facebook remained largely unchanged. Facebook's average US visitor stayed on the site for just over 22 minutes, while MySpace's average US visitor stayed on the site for less than 30 minutes, in February, 2009.