We all know the story. It plays out once every couple of years. A social media company comes creeping out of Facebook’s shadow to announce that their new app/website that will be the next digital social giant. A few trendy types jump on board, wanting to be a part of the next big thing, but a few months later they always get reeled back in to the clutches of Facebook and Instagram.
The latest company to daringly challenge the Zuck is Vero. A self-proclaimed ‘Instagram killer’ and social network that ‘lets you be yourself’, Vero is full of some opportunistic ideals and big promises. On the surface, it looks like a legitimate challenger to the monopoly that Mark Zuckerberg so nearly has on the social media market. But when I looked a little deeper, I quickly (and sadly) discovered Vero is/will probably be just another blip in the digital social world. Why…?
It’s buggy AF
The apps design looks relatively clean and user-friendly, and was one of the things that intrigued me the most when I signed up. After a quick look around, I found a couple of my friends had signed up as well. Naturally I tried to add them. “System Error” — well, isn’t that lovely. I tried again a few times, and each time the error would appear, but the app would show that I had added my friends successfully. I am currently unsure if I have any friends on Vero or not, how will I ever survive?!?!
Admittedly, this is a small(ish) problem that I’m sure will be fixed when updates inevitably come (remember when Twitter crashed early on and people lost their minds?), but lets move on to the bigger issues.
Their website straight up lies
One of their big selling points is that the feed is chronological, and that you can look at a different ‘popular’ feed if you want to. They then go on to say that Vero has no algorithms and no data-mining.
Ordering things chronologically takes at least some kind of algorithm.
To create a popular feed they would have to utilise data-mining.
‘Nuff said.
You’re gonna have to pay to use it
Okay sure, we hate that Facebook and Instagram use advertising to pay for their service, and we whinge about it all the time, but it really doesn’t bother most of us that much. Vero are allowing the first million (+ a few extra after the app crashed this week) users ‘free for life’ access, but after that, everyone else will have to pay. As much as we hate ads, I don’t think any of us are going to be jumping on a paid social site any time soon.
And finally, it’s creators are crazy fucking dodgy…
Here are the facts, plain and simple thanks to this twitter user (who comes across as a bit of a twat but is still right);
The CEO is a billionaire by inheritance. He is the son of Rafic Hariri, arguably Lebanon’s most corrupt Prime Minister ever, whose wealth grew from $1bn to $16bn while he was in power. He was then assassinated in 2005.
This article details just how horrific some of the families actions have been, including 31,000 claims of unpaid wages, when running the now defunct Saudi Oger construction conglomerate.
I don’t know about you, but this is more than enough to put me off using Vero. Unless everyone else starts using it. Then I’ll follow blindly because really it’s just another dodgy social media business — just like Facebook.
