uTravel.co.uk goes titsup.com

Another one bites the dust. Yes, United News & Media-backed travel site uTravel.co.uk has gone titsup.com, joining a host of other Web sites that have folded in a pre-Xmas rush.

The reason? Extremely competitive conditions. Nothing to do with haemorrhaging money then. We don't have the figures on how much money this site managed to burn for its six million page impressions a month, but we must be talking millions of pounds again. Depressing, ain't it?

Anyway, UN&M's online arm, Xilerate, decided that more investment in the one-year-old site just wasn't worth it - especially since there are so many other sites in the market - lastminute.com must be the most well-known. In fact it looks as though Xilerate might be moving away from the whole consumer market: "Our strategic emphasis is now to develop our considerable B2B assets," said chief executive Andrew Nugee.

UTravel was small-fry and the news barely touched UN&M's share price. So farewell uTravel, have fun in the dotcom graveyard with all the others: thestreet.co.uk, garden.com, streamline.com, wetnose.com, foodoo.com, clickmango.com, boxman.com, learnfree.co.uk - need we go on? ®