社交网络Ello：拒绝广告，向互联网“原罪”宣战

    社交网站Ello刚刚上线五个星期，但它已经给很多人留下了深刻的印象。上周该网站的注册人数激增，尤其受到同性恋圈、音乐界人士，还有德国人（最后这一点应该是个随机现象）的追捧。它还在继续进军互联网的其它角落。该公司的联合创始人保罗•巴德尼茨表示，现在Ello每小时都会收到4万个新的注册申请，该网站不得不多次对新用户邀请进行限制，以避免服务器崩溃。超过100万人还在排队等待进入Ello，这甚至比Ello上现有的用户还多。

    对于任何软件开发者来说，能有这样高的关注度真是死也值了。那么这几个佛蒙特州的家伙，凭着一个界面还很简陋的山寨版Tumblr，是怎样创造出让这么多人为之疯狂的奇迹的？答案是：凭借一份宣言和一个敌人。Ello拒绝广告，也不喜欢靠广告吃饭的Facebook。该公司的宣言称：“你们的社交网络实际拥有者是广告商，你们都是被买卖的货物。“

    在这篇雄文的末尾，用户能看到两个按键。点击“我同意”，你就进入了注册页面。点击“我不同意”，你就进入了Facebook。真是一个巧妙的小花招。

    在讨论这款应用时，你几乎很难打断巴德尼茨慷慨激昂的演讲雅兴。他在接受《财富》（Fortune）采访时表示：“我想改变这个世界。我想证明广告并不是在互联网上挣钱的唯一方法。互联网之所以变糟，之所以有这些数据搜集问题和隐私问题，跟广告这种挣钱模式有莫大关系。”而几十万人已经团结一心，在Ello上选择了“我同意”。

    The social networking site Ello is just five weeks old, but damn if it hasn’t made an impression. In the past week, the site has exploded on social media, starting with the LGBTQ community, the music industry, and—somewhat randomly— Germans. It continues to expand to various other corners of the Web. Today, 40,000 new signup requests are pouring in each hour, according to co-founder Paul Budnitz. The site had to temporarily cap new user invitations several times to keep from crashing. More than a million people are waiting to get into Ello, which is more people than are actually onEllo.

    It’s the kind of attention any app developer would die for. How did a handful of guys in Vermont, with a bare-bones Tumblr knockoff, create the latest Web craze? Answer: Launch with a manifesto and an enemy. Ello refuses ads and dislikes Facebook for doing the opposite. “Your social network is owned by advertisers,” its manifesto declares. “You are the product that’s bought and sold.”

    At the bottom of the screed, users are offered two buttons. Click “I agree” and you end up on a sign-up page. Click “I disagree” and you arrive at facebook.com. A subtle burn.

    While discussing the app, it’s difficult to keep Budnitz from wandering into soapbox territory. “I want to change the world,” he says in an interview with Fortune. “I want to prove that advertising isn’t the only way to make money on the Internet. What’s screwing up the Internet and creating all the data collection problems and privacy issues has to do with advertising as a model on the Internet.” Hundreds of thousands of people have clicked Ello’s “I agree” button in solidarity.