MySpace is no doubt getting its butt kicked on the desktop by rival Facebook, but the former heavyweight champ is taking the fight to a mobile device near you. According to Mobile Marketing Watch, “MySpace is reporting that its mobile usage increased nearly 500 perent last year, with users ‘now generating 7 billion mobile page views per month.’”

What’s driving the growth? Applications, apparently. According to MySpace vice president and general manager of mobile operations John Faith, who spoke at the Nokia Developer Summit in Monte Carlo, in the last year, “MySpace went from less than 10 percent of its mobile traffic originating from mobile applications (vs. the mobile web) to approximately 35 percent.”

All impressive, but maybe most interesting is the estimate that 50 percent of all MySpace traffic “within the next few years,” will be mobile. Not sure what “next few years” means, but it sounds sooner rather than later.

Facebook, however, is likely on a similar path. We noted in Feb. 2009 that 13 percent of all FB traffic was via mobile. And that number has likely gone up since then.

As social networking sites gain traction with recruiting, the mobile component cannot be ignored.