A copycat reunion Web site has been launched in the UK to take advantage of the apparent obsession with nostalgia and the craze of people getting in touch with long lost friends.

Gradumates targets former students who went on to higher education or university, unlike the phenomenally popular Friends Reunited site, which is geared primarily towards teaming-up old school chums.

Gradumates says it is not trying to compete with Friends Reunited - it simply wants to provide a niche service which will appeal to users and advertisers.

As the service is free to use - unlike Friends Reunited - this could give it a head start. Gradumates reckons it could have 200,000 users by the end of the year rising to 500,000 in the next 18 months or so.

The fact that the site is free to use is not a problem for as overheads are very low, according to site founder Michael Duffy.

He expects advertising revenue to cover his costs by the end of the year before he moves into profit in 2003. If nothing else, Gradumates is a shop window for his Web agency, Click Thinking, in Southport, he says. ®

Related Story

Friends Reunited - interfere with nature at your peril