Vero. What’s Vero?

Vero is a place for people to be “yourself” or at least your more “authentic” self as the site claims. The social network itself is new to the Internet only launching in late February 2018 on the Apple App Store. Vero is hoping to position itself as an outsider and that all other social media platforms have fallen into unauthentic tropes and that users online post their online selves. Vero claims on its manifesto that it will not sell ads, and the site will be subscription-based. The app originally called for the first few million users to join free of charge and would then close the open-enrollment for lifetime free memberships– as of May 2018, Vero has posted a message saying the “free-for-life” accounts would remain available until further notice (Vero Manifesto).

The app itself is currently locked down to smartphones and has no accessibility elsewhere. The site did stir up a lot of attention on Instagram causing some users to “jump ship” to join Vero, away from advertisers­. The fact of Vero is, not enough people use it– or not enough people you care about use it. Vero’s manifesto page wants users that follow you to be people you care about in the attempt for you to generate that more “authentic” content. To me, this stems from the popular belief that many people have the life they portray on social media versus their real offline life. Vero is hoping by establishing a more close-knit community, you will share more.

When it comes to sharing on Vero, the process is still a bit clunky. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and others have had years to refine their user interface, Vero is not there yet. As of publication, Vero has a large “+” posted up at the bottom of the app for sharing, which then loads a new window allowing users to post the following: photo, link, music, movie/TV, book, or place. Each one of these options allows the Vero user to add a comment to their post. Once posted it falls into a chronological feed– don’t expect your feed to be full of new content unless you are following the most active Vero users.

Vero users, right now are not businesses. In this sense, we will address using Vero in the sense of a celebrity using it for their own self-promotion business. While Vero doesn’t sell ads, it is ripe with possibility for social media influencers (if Vero ever takes off). Vero’s ability to recommend books, movies and TV, places, music is primed for celebrities to recommend their favorite things (and likely get paid). If a business was looking to get on Vero, I’d have a hard time recommending this as their platform.

Right now, Vero doesn’t have much in terms of reach. As of mid 2018, it was close to users million users, with no data on active users (The Verge). With the giants of Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat, which is a huge mountain to climb. Vero has also been struck with its fair share of controversy. The founder of Vero was formally associated with shady, less-than-ethical business dealings (The National).

As of now, Vero seems to exist as just another option. Those fed up with the constant user interface changes of Snapchat, or the issues with “fake news” on Facebook, or a non-chronological feed of Instagram… Vero might be the place for you. However, misery loves company, and right, unless you convince all your friends to join you, don’t expect much company on Vero.