There is a silent protest taking place within the online social community. Tens of thousands of people are finding ways of signing up to Ello; the ad free and invitation-only 'new' social network that suddenly everyone is talking about. Almost overnight it became a must-have accessory in the social arsenal of the 21st century netizen. In the words of the creators themselves it is an independent site without geo-locating that does not harvest your personal data, major factors in seeing it labeled with the catchy moniker 'The Anti-Facebook'.
Contrary to what one new to the subject might assume, Ello is not an overnight sensation released in the last week. On the contrary, this social network has actually been available for seven months in various beta stages of development, although a look on Twitter analytics tool Topsy shows a dramatic 301.7% increase in mentions of the network over three days from 16,029 on September 23 to 64,388 on September 26.
At its peak 'Ello' hit 64,388 mentions on Twitter and, despite a slight decrease, talk of it has yet again picked up
You would be forgiven for thinking the sudden interest is due to how different Ello is to Facebook as a user experience, but in fact Ello's features are no different to the mainstream social networks. Like Facebook you can post status updates, upload photos, add friends and reply to comments, as well as follow users like Twitter and access Google Analytics like on Google+. Indeed, unlike rising multi-purpose platform WeChat, there is nothing in the functionality at present to make Ello unique.
So why then has Ello gone from a relatively insignificant platform to one that, according to its co-founder, is averaging in the region of 40,000 new user sign-ups per day? One can only speculate, but it seems more than coincidental that this rise came about amidst a very public outcry regarding Facebook's real name policy of forcing users to use their given legal names. It has caused a large backlash, with news portals as prominent as the Guardian branding the policy 'problematic for free speech' and evaluating Facebook's position as 'stubbornly unwilling to listen to users'.
Perhaps more interesting than Ello itself is what its sudden popularity represents, especially from a business perspective. These last 72 hours have given us an insight into the mindset of a social media collective that clearly yearns for a migration from Facebook's platform, and has done so for some time. It is not just users either; advertisers are equally concerned about Facebook's harvesting of data and a feeling of distrust is said to be growing about the potential of what NASDAQ:FB could do with it.
Facebook sinking amid a stubborn 'unwillingness to listen to its users'
Within this storm of rising discontent challenger brands have also been forced to consider their options. Facebook's lowering of its algorithm to less than 1% reach over the last nine months has put a huge pressure on brands to either pay for promoted content to reach their fans or to seek specialist agency guidance in how to target their social strategy to rise above the barriers set in place by the platform. The advice tends to be unanimous: Facebook will now only benefit you if you commit advertising spend to it.
Set against this backdrop it is easy to see why so many people are keen for a change, but will Ello be that next prominent social network? Nothing about the site suggests so, however its sudden surge in sign-up figures may yet prove a momentous event in a changing social media landscape that is forcing brands and users alike to consider where is best for them to co-exist. Perhaps a mass migration is not as far off as we thought.