The social network space is oversaturated nowadays. Yet Facebook’s leading position seems unchallenged. The key leverage of Facebook is its massive number of users. Last quarter, Facebook passed 1.19 billion monthly active users. The significant network effects it created make it hard for any social network sites to unseat Facebook.

However, Ello, the new invitation-only social network service just launched this year, seemed bent on taking the challenge. Its “simple, beautiful, ad-free” web page was quite the opposite of Facebook’s cluttered ad-spamming home page. Also, manipulative user tracking system and controversial privacy settings do not exist on Ello. After reading their privacy policy, I find out that users are even given the option to opt out of information sharing. Nevertheless, despite all these fancy features and its exponentially increasing popularity, I still remain skeptical about its goal of taking on Facebook. The reason is simple. With so many existing free social network services available, like Instagram, Snapchat and Youtube, creating a large enough user bases while aiming to make a profit out of it really takes time and lots of trial and error, especially since Ello is determined not to take money from any advertisers. Maybe the optimal strategy is to stay in its niche social network with its selected artistic users.

Image and Website Sources:

http://acmconnect.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/ello-vs-facebook.png

http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/can-ello-social-network-take-facebook/