Anti-Facebook social network Ello converts to public benefit corporation

After receiving $5.5 million in fresh funding, upstart social network Ello yesterday, which created a 'Facebook is evil' positioning for itself, has promised to remain ad-free.

AFP reported, branding itself a public benefit corporation (PBC), Ello described itself as "a new kind of for-profit company in the USA that exists to produce a benefit for society as a whole - not just to make money for its investors."

The announcement posted at Ello's website comes as word spread that venture capitalists pumped $5.5 million into the company in a fresh funding round, mainly on its anti-ads stance.

That money would be used partly to beef up capacity so the social network could be opened to more users.

Ello, described as being "anti-Facebook" for its stand on privacy and advertising, had emerged a hot ticket on the internet.

"Your social network is owned by advertisers. Every post you share, every friend you make and every link you follow is tracked, recorded and converted into data," it rants on its website.

"Ello doesn't sell ads. Nor do we sell data about you to third parties," the company says.

Its "manifesto" states: "We believe a social network can be a tool for empowerment. Not a tool to deceive, coerce, and manipulate -- but a place to connect, create, and celebrate life. You are not a product."

Ello maintains that the practice of collecting and selling personal data and mapping users' social connections for profit was ''both creepy and unethical."

As part of the PBC charter, Ello said it would never make money from sale of ads and user data, and in the event that the company was sold, the new owners would have to comply with the terms of the charter.

It was also legally obligated to factor its impact on society into every decision it made.

Ello described ads as being "tacky" on its site, and said it "insults our intelligence".

"We understand some of this cynicism: With the internet turning into one giant billboard, and with virtually all social networks relying on advertising to support themselves, it can be hard to imagine that there can be a better way," the company wrote in a letter signed by all the Ello founders. "But 2014 is not 2004, and the world has changed."

Ello, an invitation-only social network, towards the end of September 2014 counted upto 31,000 people per hour joining the site.

While in no way a "Facebook killer", Ello had been compared to the much less successful pay-to-use social network App.Net and decentralised social network Diaspora.