Ello Getting Ready to Release its iOS App
The ad-free social network, Ello, is almost ready to launch its own app for iOS powered device. The application will be launched today, June 18, and will be available on the Apple App Store. This is a major step for the company as, after an initial booming success, most people have forgotten about it completely and reverted to their old Internet ways. Just like the website, the application will also be ad-free, but being totally honest, it doesn't offer anything new and different from any of other similar apps.
In case you aren't familiar with the name, Ello is a startup social network which became quite a hit last fall when it started advertising itself as the anti-Facebook social network. What's cool about this service is that, unlike its much more popular competitor, it offers an ad-free environment where the users' personal data aren't traded away lightheartedly. Another big difference is that Ello is an invite-only website so, in order to become a member, someone who's already in must invite you to join. Last October, the company registered somewhere around 31,000 invite requests per hour and the black market for them was thriving.
After nabbing $5.5 million from crowd funding (which they've used to redesign the website) the company fell from the media and the public's graces. But that's not necessarily because there's something wrong, but simply because it doesn't offer anything completely new. Furthermore, the social network also tries to keep a low profile. Unlike Twitter or Facebook which make their names constantly heard, Ello is very secretive about its growth or the new features they add so the general public isn't very aware of its existence.
