What sets Thefacebook apart is its inherent selectivity--and its level is determined by each user. In some instances, members only accept messages from others enrolled in their schools. Many users will only make themselves and their profile available to those who can prove they are friends with someone on their friends list.

Thefacebook also stands out because of its early success, as it has quickly established itself as a leader in the social networking space. The company claims over 2.8 million registered users, and estimates that about 80 percent of undergraduate students at participating universities are registered to the site.

"College students everywhere live and breathe Thefacebook," said Sean Parker, president of Thefacebook, who previously co-founded both Napster and a Web-based electronic address book known as Plaxo. "Because virtually every student at schools across the country uses Thefacebook, the site has become an essential tool for helping college students manage their social and campus life."

Visits to the site spiked 358 percent for the week ending Feb. 19, 2005 compared to six months prior, according to Hitwise. For the week ending May 21, the research firm found the site had an 8.49 percent market share--a distant second behind market leader MySpace, which had 84.46 percent of the market for the week.

Jim Breyer, managing partner at Accel, said his firm chose to invest in the site mainly because over 60 percent of the site's registered users visit Thefacebook at least once a day, generating billions of page views per month. "We've considered dozens of social networking sites in the past, but chose Thefacebook because of the passionate devotion that its members have shown," Breyer said.

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