So you want to try Ello, the new indie ad-free social network that boasts it won’t buy or sell your information. First of all, good luck getting into the network, which is currently invitation only, and second, what about your friends and your friends’ friends? Where exactly is all the content you go to Facebook to see going to come from and why would you spend any time on a social network without it?
What makes a social media network ‘social’ is the amount of people on them sharing content pictures and stories, and everyone is on Facebook sharing great content, approximately 829 million per day according to Facebook. That is why I say, like them or hate them – Facebook isn’t going anywhere soon and has nothing to worry about from other social networks, especially Ello.
What may be even more compelling is the number of mobile daily active users on Facebook. Ello does not currently have a mobile app. How on earth would Ello get people to replace Facebook with their social network when most of Facebook’s users are on mobile?
While the demand that Ello’s exclusivity is creating is palpable, what makes the web an interesting place is its interconnectivity. The internet takes interesting ideas and makes them visible regardless of previous constructs of popularity and exclusivity. People like it that way. Exclusivity doesn’t work in social networking, inclusivity does. Facebook has already gotten nearly a billion people to be social in the same place on the web. At some point Ello will probably be open to all, but think about what Facebook has done in the short time that it has existed.
Most people looking to share content in Ello will have to troll Facebook to find it, go back to Ello and share it. It won’t take people long to realize they could have just stayed on Facebook. The only people willing to keep up that charade are users trying to build up their social media profiles with friends and followers for no other reason than looking popular “statistically” which definitely does not represent the average social media user.
Isn’t that why Google Plus is such a boring lonely place? Tell me if this sounds familiar, you joined Google Plus and you waited for others to join you and share content, only when you looked back at Facebook – everyone was still over there sharing the stories and content you really cared about.
It reminds me of another exclusive social network “Netropolitan” that just launched offering services to rich people who can afford the service, which I think will also end up being a boring place to hang out on the web.