Hello, Ello. Goodbye, Social Marketplace?

By Matt Pillar, chief editor

November 2014 Integrated Solutions For Retailers

As I write this, Ello — the anti-Facebook social network phenomenon that went ballistic this fall — is signing on new users at a rate of 38,000 per hour, according to (and to the surprise of) founder Paul Budnitz. That’s astonishing, given that Ello is less than two years old and still just in beta mode, gaining new users by invitation-only. Bloggers and media pundits have stopped just short of predicting Facebook’s demise.

This column is, however, less about Ello than it is about the threat that Ello, or any number of similar anti-commercialist social sharing sites that might pop up, poses to the retail marketplace. It’s about contemplating what could happen if Facebook falls, whether one particular social network could challenge Mark Zuckerberg’s global domination (Facebook boasts 1.19 billion active users), and whether Ello-inspired anti-capitalist splinter groups could pop up at a dizzying rate and collectively dismantle the commercially funded juggernaut.