Simple. Beautiful. And ad-free?

Ever feel like your social media feeds are completely overrun with advertisements for products that, eeriliy, you have recently searched for? It happens to the best of us – and it is no coincidence.

Ello wants to change that. The new platform was originally created by a group of seven artists and programmers as a private social media network, but when word got out (as it typically does in our fast-moving digital world) they decided to release it to the public. As of right now, Ello is invite only, and playing “hard to get” seems to be working for it – Ello is now one of the web’s most exclusive social networking sites.

Luckily, Ello has promised to never change its mission. It is a USA Public Benefit Corporation, which makes it impossible to ever sell ads or its users’ data. The best part of it all? Ello is completely free to use! It exhibits a more artistic, raw side of social networking that other channels don’t have, explaining in its manifesto that the creators believe in “beauty, simplicity, and transparency.”

It’s difficult to say this early on whether or not Ello will succeed as a social networking site without interplaying with advertisers. But let’s say Ello takes off, skyrockets into popularity, surpasses Facebook and Instagram, perhaps… Where does this leave the future of social advertising? What happens to social media marketing if our target audience is part of a club where no brands are allowed?

To see what the site is all about, request an invite by visiting the Ello Home Page. And then, tell us what you think!

Image courtesy of Ello’s home page