Facebook Faces Stiff Competition In New Social Network Start-up

Image credit: ello.co

Ello is a new, ad-free social network that threatens to become even bigger than Facebook, at a time when the popular social media website is losing its young users and causing rift with its current users for the blatant profiteering.

A group of designers and programmers founded Ello six weeks ago, including Paul Budnitz of Vermont. The site is still in beta-testing and is invite-only for the moment. It allegedly gets 35,000 requests for invites per hour.

According to Digital Marketing Professor at Emerson College David Gerzof Richard, the website is appealing because of its artistic feel. Facebook, he said, has more of a coloring book feel where users have to stay within the lines.

Ello is unlike Facebook in many ways including

• Network is edgy in its design – nearly industrial – that makes it both functional and artistic
• It vows to stay ad-free
• Users don’t have to share information with anyone about themselves

This is bad news for Facebook, especially now. Facebook has been hit with a number of controversies recently. For example, according to the website’s own information, fewer teens (around three million) are using Facebook less than in 2011. The network, a little time later, issued a statement and apology for enrolling its users into academic researchers’ study without informing them. This move allowed the website to manipulate the timelines without getting their “Okays”.

Facebook is regarded as a power tools with advertisers, regardless of the business’ size. Facebook is the best when it comes to hyper-targeting and conversion rates. However, being so advertiser-driven is a bad thing as well.

Another backlash Facebook has faced is the removal of profiles that don’t use real names.

Ello claims it’s user-driven, not advertiser-driven.

Gerzof Richard said that will be a trick since, as the network increases in size, there are certain requirements – service, bandwidth, customer service, etc. – that need money to be met.

Of course, Facebook is a popular social network mammoth and replacing it could take some doing, as one-third of the world uses it on a daily basis. However, Ello may be up for the challenge.

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Posted by News on Sep 29 2014. Filed under Featured, New, Sci/Tech. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.