"The real growth is obviously occurring internationally with respect to social networking in broader terms, but even more specifically with certain sites like Facebook and Hi5," senior analyst Andrew Lipsman said Friday.

"Facebook doesn't provide the content, it simply provides the venue for people to connect with each other in whatever culturally acceptable way they deem fit," said [Carmi Levy], senior vice-president of strategic consulting at Toronto's AR Communications Inc.

Hi5, an international social networking site with a local flavour, finished third behind Facebook and MySpace. Hi5 doubled its traffic in June '08 with 56.3 million unique visitors versus June '07.