Ello, the social media platform that first rose to prominence last year, has released a sleeker version of its service at the same time as its CEO and founder says e-commerce capabilities are in the works.
Ello first appeared in the limelight last summer when thousands of people signed up to be a part of the social network. Its main appeal was the promise of a social media platform that was 100 per cent ad-free.
Naturally this attracted many people’s attention who became annoyed by the advertising overload of Twitter and Facebook. In order to prevent the app from overloading the company made the service invitation only. Obviously the exclusivity factor hyped-up the company even more and the company soon managed to easily secure investor funding, which brought its total funding up to $10m.
However, Ello failed to live up to the expectations last year. The company said it was not prepared for the amount of people who were interested in the social network, and in reality its social network offered the most basic services such as creating personal posts and following people.
This iteration of the app appears to be sleeker and the functions appear more advanced. Ello appears to have taken a leaf out of the more established companies’ page. Now you can post, post comments, follow people and discover new and interesting people on the network.
Like the bigger social networks, it has also started looking to e-commerce capabilities. In an interview with Venture Beat, Paul Budnitz, the founder and CEO of Ello, has said that early next year the company is planning to let people on the network to offer their creative services and “artisanal wares” via posts.
Artists and small businesses will be able post products that can be bought on their stream, and crucially, Ello will facilitate the transaction with some form of a ‘buy button’ for a percentage of the sale.
The company appears to be following in the footsteps of other creative social networks such as Etsy and Pinterest who have now created e-commerce communities around creative services.
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