Anyone who spotted me this week peering at hand-written adverts for "new models upstairs" in the doorways of London's Chinatown will have suspected I was only after one thing. Sure, I admit it. I wanted cheap thrills and easy action. I was looking for the Next Big Noise in internet start-ups.

My hunt through the louche byways of the capital had been triggered by CBS's purchase of Last.fm, a London-based music and social networking website. The $280m consideration was modest compared with the $1.65bn Google paid for YouTube. But it supported the thesis of Hugo Burge, a high-technology investor, who sees London as a humming technopolis, luring ambitious young entrepreneurs from across the European Union. "London is becoming a European centre for internet start-ups," said Mr Burge, a partner in Howzat Media, an investment business.