70,000 Freshers Get It

Univillage.com, the social networking website backed by lastminute.com founder Brent Hoberman, claims it is on target to sign 90% of all UK university first years, making student recruitment tough for US rival Facebook.

The site, which officially launched last month, is targeting the 400,000 freshers entering university and, ultimately, the 1.2 million full-time students in the UK.

"It is clear British is best when it comes to social networking, with freshers preferring a site dedicated to UK students to something adapted from a generic US model," said Mr Hoberman, a strategic adviser and non-executive director at the company.

So reports Mark Sweney at the Guardian