A new technology start-up is targeting the most profitable niche of the online social networking trend – business networks.

TalkBizNow, a UK-based site that launched on Monday, is hoping for a slice of the rocketing traffic and rising advertising rates enjoyed by business networking sites at a time when Facebook, the UK’s largest social networking site, is seeing growth begin to slow. LinkedIn, the largest business networking site, has 26m members and a valuation of $1bn.