Ello is a social network, developed by Paul Budnitz in March 2014, that was dubbed by the media as the “anti-facebook”. Ello was released in the September of 2014, with just 90 users, and prides itself on its ad-free philosophies, that extend to maintaining user anonymity and refusing to use or distribute their data. The company committed to these philosophies legally in October 2014, establishing itself as a benefit corporation. Instead of sourcing revenue from data opportunities, Ello has established brand partnerships to pursue creative solutions such as partnership with t-shirt manufacturer Threadless to produce branded merchandise (Lopez, 2014).
The platform operated with an unusual acquisition strategy upon launch, allowing users only with specific invites to join the platform. Once accepted, a user can invite ten friends to the network, which is perhaps more reflective of our real social networks. The exclusive strategy proved to be highly successful, obtaining over 1 million users and 100,000 invite requests per day in its first month after launch (Arthur, 2014). This buzz translated in to wide-spread media coverage, as journalists reported the launch of Facebook’s potential successor. As i’m sure you’re aware, this is a big label to live up to. And this, I believe, is Ello’s main problem.
When I started writing the blog, the piece was titled “Saying Goodbye To Ello”, and was a personal review on my experience with the site and my reasons for writing it off. The site is buggy, fails to incorporate media from URL links, has a complex friend system and even fails to offer private messaging functionality (Pearl, 2015). Furthermore, it’s a pretty lonely place. The sign-up initiative is great for creating an exclusive community, but it means it’s difficult – if not impossible – to find your friends on there and interact with them.
Despite all of this, I’m prepared to give it another chance. Hearing of the anti-facebook, i signed up for the site with the assumption of a social network that does things a little differently, perhaps similar to switching from Microsoft to Apple. I’m sure i’m not alone in these assumptions. The issue, however, is that this isn’t what Ello is intended to be, nor is it what it functions as.
Ello’s founders described the site as being “built specifically with creative people in mind, people who value content, with a good bit of discussion and dialogue happening around that content”. Upon reading this quote, I started to see this differently. It’s true – Ello isn’t a place where you are drowned in meme’s and selfies, it’s far more focused on creative content, which has huge implications. Ello’s “friends” aren’t supposed to reflect those that you see day to day, more it is an expression of appreciating somebodies work and interacting with them to say this. Budnitz notes this, saying that the “most remarkable thing is how positive it is” (Pearl, 2015).
Ultimately, this is a platform that is meant with a very specific type of content and people in mind, that may have received a kiss of death from the media. There are issues with the site – for example an inability to filter content according to your creative interests such as featured on Pinterest. Ello has, however, created something unique, and may become highly successful as the “beta” network adds more functionality.
If this sounds like something that interests you, comment below to ask for an invite code.
References
Arthur, C. (2014). Goodbye, Ello? Searches for new social network collapse. the Guardian. Retrieved 29 October 2015, from http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/oct/14/goodbye-ello-google-seacrhes-social-network
Lopez, N. (2014). Ad-Free Social Network Ello Turns to T-shirts for Revenue. The Next Web. Retrieved 29 October 2015, from http://thenextweb.com/insider/2014/11/18/ad-free-social-network-ello-turns-branded-t-shirts-revenue/
Pearl, M. (2015). Who’s Still Using Ello?. VICE. Retrieved 29 October 2015, from http://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/people-are-still-using-ello-535
