Everyone needs an arch enemy. Batman had the Joker. Peter Pan had Captain Hook. Doctor Who had the Daleks.
Whilst many would argue that Facebook’s arch nemesis could be any number of privacy activist groups, an “anti-ad” social network that is currently emerging from the depths of anonymity is showing signs of promise for anyone looking for a Facebook alternative popular enough to give the number one social network a run for their advertising money.
Say hello to Ello.
Currently at invite-only, early reports are suggesting that tens of thousands of people are requesting to join the latest social network-in-the-making every hour.
But what is all the fuss about given what is just another social network start-up? Well, in this case the key selling point of Ello is the very feature in which is lacks. Adverts.
The ethos of Ello is abundantly clear. It’s a site that does not track its users. It does not expose its users to third party ads. At Ello, privacy is paramount. You are the customer, not the product.
It’s not hard to see why the site has been unofficially dubbed the anti-Facebook.
Every post you share, every friend you make and every link you follow is tracked, recorded and converted into data. Advertisers buy your data so they can show you more ads. You are the product that’s bought and sold.
We believe there is a better way. We believe in audacity. We believe in beauty, simplicity and transparency. We believe that the people who make things and the people who use them should be in partnership.
We believe a social network can be a tool for empowerment. Not a tool to deceive, coerce and manipulate — but a place to connect, create and celebrate life.
You are not a product.
The site has only been live for 6 weeks at the time of writing, and the timing probably could not have been better with Facebook recently in the firing line for a number of privacy mishaps (to be fair that could have just been about any time) including their emotions experiment, a lot of [unwarranted] alarm over their Facebook Messenger app and the recent announcement of their ever-expansive advertising platform (Atlas.)
Third-party-ads don’t have a great reputation right now, and that’s thanks largely to Facebook. Many people think of targeted ads as an invasion of privacy, despite being one of the most accepted ways of monetising a website.
Despite this reputation, third party apps are the reason websites like Facebook are free to use. After all, it’s the price you pay. You don’t open your wallet, but to some extent you open up your online life to advertisers.
Which of course brings us round to the question of how Ello are planning on monetising their website. No adverts mean no advertising revenue, and someone has to pay for all those servers and programmers.
A revenue model dubbed freemium is apparently the answer. Freemium is the revenue strategy that involves providing a service for free but charging for the more premium services. You’re more than likely be aware of the model – dating websites are amongst the most common sites to use this strategy – they allow you to sign up and create a profile for free, but if you’re looking to connect with others you’ll need to pay.
It’s unlikely that Ello will stop people from connecting with each other before paying, since after all it’s a social networking website. What services they will offer for a cost remains to be seen.
Critics generally agree that a social networking site using the freemium model could potentially work for a particular niche – i.e. a user will be more compelled to pay out for services since they can get more out of a niche site that caters specifically for their interests. But on a large scale “generic” way it is unlikely that users will pay for services on Ello when they can get them for free on Facebook, which could prevent Ello from getting promoted into the big boy’s league.
Basically that means putting up Facebook, with their targeted adverts and tracking, as well as the privacy concerns that go with them.
Would you sign up for Ello? What do you think of the freemium revenue model versus third party targeted advertisement model? Let us know in the comments below.
