Social networking site Bebo has become more popular than its main rival MySpace in the UK, figures show.

According to web tracking company Hitwise, Bebo has just overtaken MySpace, owned by News Corp, for the first time ever in the UK based on weekly visits.

In the US, however, MySpace continues to be the most visited social networking site, Hitwise said.

Bebo surpassed MySpace in weekly market share of UK internet visits to become the most visited social networking site in the UK for the week ending August 5.

California-based Bebo had overtaken MySpace in daily visits on two individual days in May, but this marks the first time the site has overtaken MySpace in weekly visits.

The most recent surge in visits to Bebo was likely driven by the launch two weeks ago of the site's music service, dubbed "Bebo Bands", Hitwise noted.

In the UK, Bebo's market share of visits has grown 17 per cent in the past two weeks, whilst MySpace has seen its market share decline 5 per cent, the figures showed.

Bebo led MySpace by 3 per cent in market share of visits last week, with one in every 135 UK internet visits going to Bebo.

The site also became the 11th most visited site on the internet, up from 17th two weeks ago.

For average session duration, Bebo also continues to maintain its lead on MySpace, with visitors spending an average time of 28:58 minutes on the site, compared with 26:26 minutes for MySpace.

"Bebo Bands re-energised Bebo’s membership base to boost visits to the site at a typically slow time of year for social networking," said Heather Hopkins, vice president of research for Hitwise UK.

"In May, Hitwise predicted that Bebo would overtake MySpace in share of UK visits at the start of the new school term, as the summer is typically a slow time for the site.

"The launch of Bebo Bands brought members back to the site and it shot ahead of MySpace ahead of our projection."

Whilst Bebo surpassed MySpace based on UK visits, the figures show that MySpace remains the most popular social networking site in the US with nearly 51 per cent of category visits.

MySpace is also the number one social networking site in Australia, with 16.68 per cent of category visits, whilst Bebo is tops in New Zealand, Xanga leads in Hong Kong and Friendster in Singapore, Hitwise said.

On Monday (August 7), News Corp's Fox Interactive Media signed a multiyear deal to use Google search to direct traffic across its network of internet sites, including MySpace.com.

In the 17 months since it launched, Bebo has signed up over 25 million members worldwide.