Why Ello (probably) won’t be big

Remember Diaspora*? Nope, didn’t think you did.

Diaspora* was a social network that had a manifesto very similar to Ello’s.

In Diaspora* you own your data. You do not sign over any rights to a corporation or other interest who could use it.

You can be whoever you want, unlike some networks, you don’t have to use your real identity.

Remember Alpha.App.net? Maybe, but I bet you hardly ever used it.

Alpha.App.net was an ‘ad-free’ subscription based social network that was created because some developers were annoyed with the way Twitter was trying to become more commercial in 2012 (the story of which is well summarised here).

As consumers, we are currently given the choice between Facebook, Twitter, or Google+… All of these services are essentially in the same business: vying for the opportunity to sell you/your clickstream to advertisers.

The ‘social network with a manifesto’ appears to be a hard sell to someone with a lot of sunk cost in a network they’re broadly happy with. It’s an even harder sell if the manifesto (rather than a standout feature) is the network’s USP.

That doesn’t mean Ello can’t be the exception to this trend (and in case it is you can follow me at http://www.ello.co/JackDearlove) but it does mean they’re going to have to move fast to avoid being ‘the next Yo’.

Facebook won’t be around forever but it’s going to take features rather than a mission statement to knock them off their perch.

Disagree? Tweet me @JackDearlove or we can chat about this on Ello….I guess…