In all the coverage of Microsoft allegedly pushing for a five percent stake in Facebook, there has been next-to-no mentions of Microsoft’s own social-networking platform, Windows Live Spaces.

Live Spaces, when it launched as a new and improved version of MSN Spaces, already had 112 million monthly unique visitors and stored 4 billion uploaded user-uploaded photos. In 2007, Microsoft says Live Spaces has 115 million monthly unique visitors, more than 2.5 billion page views per month. Microsoft says there are 93 million Live Spaces (not necessarily users) out there.

Comparatively, Facebook has 26.6 million unique users per month and 15.8 billion page views. There are an estimated 40 million registered Facebook users.

Given that Live Spaces looks like a credible Facebook competitor (at least on virtual paper), why has Microsoft seemingly done so little to promote Live Spaces? For one, many of its users are not U.S.-based. For another, Microsoft’s been struggling with how to position its Live Spaces service.

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Microsoft, Windows Live, Windows Live Spaces, Facebook, Social Network, Social Networking, Social Media, Article