UK: Universities force student dating site to close

06 June 2010

A student dating website that received four million hits in its first month has been taken down after pressure from universities, reports The Times. The FitFinder, the brainchild of 21-year-old University College London student Rich Martell, combined Twitter and a classified ads column, allowing students to swap messages of admiration in libraries and social spaces.

But university authorities became concerned that it was proving a distraction for students during revision term and women's groups expressed disquiet after several posts on the site were deemed offensive. More than 1,000 students signed an online petition to save the site in less than two hours last week.

Martell, who founded The FitFinder less than a month ago, has been in talks with entrepreneurs to extend the site beyond universities. He hopes to follow the model of Facebook, which extended beyond campuses and now has 400 million users worldwide.
Full report on The Times site

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