Founded by seven American artists and programmers, Ello was recently opened to the general public on the virtual planet and presents itself as an alternative to all those dissatisfied with Facebook. The site crashed several times due to too many connections. But this apparent success has been tempered by numerous criticisms from professionals. We took a look at it, here's what we thought.
What we like
"You are not a product" is the slogan of this new social network. The idea is to compete with Facebook by offering a site without too many advertisements and the resale of its users' personal data. And if we delete his account, we take our data back with us; a great victory for activists of the right to be forgotten on the Internet.
How can you not enjoy a conversation without incessant advertising? Or stop feeding big investors who have your supposedly private information to do with it as they please (and serve you even more business ads)? For the basic idea, we say yes. But the problem is that the positives end there.
What we don't like
First, the difficulty of registering. Because to create an account, it is mandatory to be invited by someone who is already registered there. As a result, it is impossible to go and test the platform if none of your acquaintances are registered there. And as Jonah Berger, professor of marketing at Wharton University in Pennsylvania, said, "Social media is like a party:You don't have fun unless you know someone."
The design, very refined, which is not attractive at all. Too much white and too many empty spaces, it looks more like a hospital wall than a web page you want to linger on. So we look for a few moments and we will see elsewhere.
The lack of features. You can post statuses and share photos, that's all. This is the heart of a social network, of course, but we have become accustomed to being able to do much more, on our different accounts. As a result, we remain a little on our hunger. And you can't even block certain people. Ello still has some work to do to convince.
The predicted future
It is difficult to imagine a very promising future. In today's market, you have to sell. Especially since the creators borrowed $435,000 from FreshTracks, a venture capital firm. And the interest of these organizations is to recover their investment. Ello's idea to replenish their coffers is to sell additional features, in other words:to make you buy gadgets to improve your account. The challenge is therefore to find what will make you want to pay, and that is not won. This freemium system (a free part and a paid part) is already widely used on the Web, particularly by the media and online video games. But this operation has never met with success on social networks. In search of a viable economic model, it is difficult to see how Ello could dethrone the giant with the blue thumb.
Additionally, an RJMetrics survey shows that six days after signing up, only one in five members are still active. A rather low figure even if Twitter had not started more brilliantly. And 36% of subscribers have never posted on the social network. Which proves that Ello attracts the curious but has nothing more to offer than its elders. But can this newcomer to the great Internet family be able to defy the odds and succeed where many have failed? Nothing is less sure. Especially when you know that 1.3 billion people still connect at least once a month to their Facebook account. But if you like this new concept, its success is in your hands.
