On Aug. 7, a social network named Ello opened its doors to the public with a humble collection of 90 initial users.
Carrying the platform of “simple, beautiful and ad-free,” the startup drew national attention when it found itself on top of a seemingly overnight surge in popularity late September.
Three months later, with the smoke cleared and the initial buzz subsided, a couple of questions emerge: What is Ello? How did it manage to score rockstar-popularity in a world dominated by juggernauts such as Twitter, Facebook, Reddit and Tumblr?
Allegedly brought to life by “seven well-known artists and programmers as a private social network,” Ello intrigued the hip masses with a website that was clean, simple and, above all, advertisement-free.
Despite heavy eye-rolling from skeptics, Ello has cemented its promise in the strictest legal terms. On Oct. 24, the network filed as a public benefit corporation, meaning two things: no advertisers or data mining, ever.
Many have started calling it the “anti-Facebook.” After all, Mark Zuckerberg’s business is nearly synonymous with rampant, ever-present advertising, as well as the egregious sale of its users’ data.
In a way, it was the perfect storm. Just as a larger-than-usual flock of people left Facebook this fall for a policy shift requiring users to use their legal names, suddenly, the perfect replacement came into view.
So does Ello have the chops to topple Zuckerberg’s empire? According to owner Paul Budnitz, the question is irrelevant; that was never the intention.
Despite the tenets outlined in its lofty “manifesto” that are, by definition,
anti-Facebook (being ad-free, transparent and noncommercial), Budnitz said no competition exists between the two.
“Ello is not for everyone,” he said.
In an interview with the Re/code, Budnitz said, “I think Zuckerberg said once that he wanted to sign up everybody in the world on Facebook. That’s not our goal. We just want to make a nice community.”
One question remains: How do you maintain a model that is both free to use and scorns advertising?
Budnitz said in several interviews that Ello will operate on what is popularly referred to as the “freemium model.” It will always be free to use, but will eventually offer premium features for the small price of a dollar or two.
It’s difficult to ignore the leap of faith that Budnitz and his gang are taking with such a model. However, experts such as Paul Booth, associate professor of media and cinema studies, can’t dismiss the approach outright.
Booth said other websites have used a “‘free but premium’” model, such as Pandora and Hulu. Even these, however, are difficult to compare to Ello.
“The difference here is the content that’s being provided,” Booth said.
People are no strangers to paying for entertainment. In an age where virtually all TV is a torrent away, paying a subscription for online streaming services or a cable provider is by no means unusual.
The difference, Booth said, is that people are “not used to paying to hang out with their friends.”
In terms of sustainability, Booth said Ello won’t be disappearing any time in the near future.
“I suspect that their economic model will last few a few years, but once they reach a saturation point, they’ll have to brainstorm a different way to get revenue,” Booth said, suggesting donation appeals or charging a small renewable fee, such as Netflix.
Joey Schuringa, a DePaul senior studying computer science, has spent two weeks on Ello. He said the concept was wonderful.
“But Ello has a way to go before it is wholly usable,” Schuringa said.
He loved the black-and-white color scheme Ello has adopted, but isn’t a fan of some of the other aspects.
“The interface isn’t super intuitive,” he said. “It’s more click-everything-until-you-find-what-you-want.”
He appreciated the minimalist approach taken by their designers, but that minimalist “doesn’t mean it has to hide everything,” he said.
As it stands, Ello is still in the beta stages and has made no announcements about going public in the near future. Only time will tell if it will live up to the hype.