There’s little doubt that Twitter was one of the most talked about startups over the past year. But just how much did it grow in 2008? The final numbers are in, and according to Compete, they’re astounding: 752%, for a total of 4.43 million unique visitors in December.

After starting the year with only around 500,000 unique monthly visitors, Twitter saw its most dramatic growth in the back half of ’08, picking up more than one million additional visitors in December alone. And that’s all just in the US. Here’s the chart:







Also notable in the just-updated Compete stats: Facebook closed ’08 by passing MySpace in US traffic by the slimmest of margins. While other stats services still show MySpace with a significant lead, the report we most frequently cite – Nielsen Online – has also shown a rapid closing of the gap in recent months. Look for those stats on Mashable in the next week or two.







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