MySpace now claims 10 million active UK user profiles, making it the country's most popular social network social networking site. 

The result is particularly impressive as MySpace only launched its localised UK site in April last year.

"More than 10 million people in the UK are using MySpace to live their lives online," said Jamie Kantrowitz, senior vice president of marketing and content at MySpace Europe.

Market research firm Nielsen NetRatings predicted in June that Facebook and Bebo could catch MySpace by September this year if their growth in new users continued and MySpace growth levelled off. 

But it would seem that the competition still has a way to go. Nielsen logged MySpace with 6.5 million unique UK visitors in May, compared to 3.96 million for Bebo and 3.2 million for Facebook.

MySpace seems to be lacking the addictive quality of its rivals, however. Nielsen reported that users spent an average 96 minutes on the site in May, while Facebook users spent 143 minutes and Bebo users spent 152 minutes.

Some 1.8 million UK MySpace profiles have marked London as their hometown, making it the most popular location. Manchester followed with more than 721,000 and Birmingham with more than 589,000.