Univillage swaps partners

Univillage, the social networking site for UK students, has partnered with SUBtv.

The move coincides with an end of its relationship with youth marketing agency Face Group.

Peter Miles of SUBtv told Reach Students that the two media will work together to facilitate user-generated content through Univillage. There will be a particular focus on encouraging and empowering small communities on campus, such as sports teams.

When Univillage launched over a year ago it was clearly seen as a? UK competitor to Facebook, which at the time was only for students. Miles said Univillage would not want to compete directly with Facebook any longer and was instead developing a unique identity inspired by the work already done by SUBtv on campuses.

It’s an? interesting time for student-centred social networks.

Six months ago? few would have thought any competitor stood a chance of survival against Facebook.

However, the landscape has altered now that Mark Zuckerberg’s phenomenal product has opened its doors to all and sundry. Students no longer have an exclusive environment on Facebook to share opinion, ideas, jokes and advice.

The nuances of communication between intelligent young adults are suddenly subject to scrutiny and misinterpretation from ‘outsiders’.

The seismic introduction of the apps functionality has also changed the site fundamentally.

It will be intriguing to see how things develop and whether the core users in the UK – which currently remain students – ever start to feel that their playground has been taken away from them.