News 

The venture capital fund Benchmark Capital Europe has sunk $15 million in the online start-up Bebo. Like the similar social networking sites such MySpace, bought last year by News Corp for £310 million, and Facebook, the site is mostly occupied by teenagers and 20-somethings who hang out together and where anyone over 30 is generally discouraged from taking part.

However, these sites are highly sought after by advertisers looking to target the elusive young adult demographic as well as trend spotters hoping to spot The Next Big Thing, like the Arctic Monkeys.

At the other end of the scale is aSmallWorld.net - an exclusive site aimed solely at movers and shakers. Bob and Harvey Weinstein, the brothers who founded Miramax, are leading a group of investors including Bob Pittman, former chief operating officer of AOL Time Warner, who have made a 'significant investment' in the site.

Like some other 'exclusive' social networking sites such as Google's Orkut, membership is by invitation only. Founded by Erik Wachtmeister in 2004, the aSmallWorld.net 'club' claims to consist of a global community of 'trusted friends' said to consist of around 130,000 people in 100 countries.

Membership ranges from entrepreneurial and business opinion makers to leaders in media, entertainment and sports. Therefore one can be fairly sure that the group of Hollywood investors were already members. Or perhaps maybe they were not.