Facebook now twice as big as MySpace

Facebook is now pulling in nearly twice as many unique visitors worldwide as News Corp.-owned competitor Myspace, according to new statistics from ComScore.

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Roughly 222 million people around the world visited Facebook in December versus 125 million people for MySpace. (CNET's Caroline McCarthy notes that Facebook pegs its active user count at about 150 million.)

The statistics come just two weeks after ComScore statistics indicated that MySpace was still bigger in the U.S., measured by pageviews and time spent on the site.

On a worldwide scale, though, Facebook edges out Myspace, according to the new figures.

If there's one thing to note, though, it's that Myspace has had the jump on Facebook with regard to revenue. Ever since News Corp. invested in the site a few years ago, it has been able to monetize its audience much better than Facebook does, plain and simple.

Facebook's challenge, of course, is to take advantage of its larger (probably still more affluent) audience, from which it has collected an incredible amount of information from. That information -- including surfing habits, thanks to Facebook Connect -- could help Facebook get a better sense of its audience.