It's creators say they've seen invite requests climb up to 38,000 inquiries in an hour at one point. While it won't destroy Facebook, Ello continues to evolve into a viable social alternative for users who have no tolerance for ads and data mining.
Ello started out as a private social network, but demand for the ad-free site has prompted founder Paul Budnitz to open its doors to the general public. Right now, Ello is invite only.
With a long list of features it would like to roll out soon, Ello is far from where it would like to be. But that's not stopping people from lining up for a token and a chance to join the ad-free network.
"Your social network is owned by advertisers," states Ello's manifesto. "Every post you share, every friend you make and every link you follow is tracked, recorded and converted into data. Advertisers buy your data so they can show you more ads. You are the product that's bought and sold. We believe there is a better way."
Though Ello promises to stay free of ads, the site collects user data it says it uses to improve the social network's experience. User can opt out of data sharing in-full, but Ello says it protects the identity of those who choose to share information with it.
Ello uses a custom "anonymized" version of Google Analytics, which it says is stripped of IP addresses. The social network says the data it collects is location, language, referring site and time spent using Ello.
"Collecting and selling your personal data, reading your posts to your friends, and mapping your social connections for profit is both creepy and unethical," says Ello. "Under the guise of offering a 'free' service, users pay a high price in intrusive advertising and lack of privacy. We also think ads are tacky, that they insult our intelligence and that we're better without them."
Facebook likely doesn't feel threatened by the much smaller social site and Budnitz indicates that Ello has no aspirations to swell to the size of Mark Zuckerberg's site.
"The advertisers are the customer and the user is the product that's being bought and sold," Budnitz said. "We don't see ourselves competing with them, because what we're doing feels so different."
With Ello's seven founders still in possession of majority shares in the company, Budnitz says there's no one telling them what to do.
"We want to make a successful business that makes money, but it doesn't have to be a $30 billion company," Budnitz said.
