Everything You Need to Know About Vero

Vero.

Meaning truth. Not to be confused with Vera, as in Wang, the clothing designer, Vero is calling itself “true social”, you know, how things used to be before app developers discovered they could make a killing off their users.

what is vero?

Vero is a social networking app, free of ads, free of algorithms, basically free of everything everyone complains about with Instagram and Facebook.

It was only a matter of time before another app gave monopolizing social media platforms a run for their money and this app may be the one. There have been other apps that have tried and fallen short but Vero may have come at just the right time.

Though no one is entirely sure what Vero offers aside from an ad-free, algorithm-free community, it seems to be a hybrid of Facebook and Instagram.

It’s interesting because you can go into, what Vero calls, “collections” and your feed is chronologically categorized into photos, links, music, movies, books, etc. So if you’re looking for a good book, instead of scrolling through your feed to see who recommended what book, you can just go to people’s “collections” and browse the books they recommend.

For example, over the weekend I posted 2 books I love – one I’m currently reading and another I’ve already read and strongly recommend. It’s pretty neat.

Vero also gives you more control over what you’re sharing to who. If you make a “connection” with someone you claim is an “acquaintance” you can choose not to share something with them and share with just your “close friends” instead. It’s almost a throwback to MySpace with the Top 8, like are you a “close friend” or an “acquaintance”?

As interesting as it sounds, I have to admit, the app can be pretty glitchy, which Vero has acknowledged and said they’re working on. It took me a while to first made an account because of the overload of people signing up, but now it seems to have leveled out and I don’t have as many issues.

why is vero all the rage?

Like I said before, Vero got popular at just the right time as Instagram has implemented its toughest algorithm yet and users have had enough. Vero is the best of what Instagram used to be: no ads, a chronological feed, no algorithm, just social interaction and opportunity for growth.

In my opinion, it’s refreshing from all the junk we’re force fed day in and day out on other platforms (not saying any names) but just because I watched ONE salsa dancing video does not mean I want to be recommended salsa dancing lessons, salsa dancing professionals, and/or salsa dancing workout gear. Ok, I’m being dramatic but you know what I mean! There was no escaping it… until now.

vero sounds too good to be true, what’s the catch?

Well, because everyone’s been all up in arms over this new app, there’s been a lot of research happening.

First of all Vero was supposed to charge a “small fee” after the first million users signed up, however the app went from 150,000 to 3 million users in one week. So while they may still be planning on charging a lil’ somethin’ later, I’m not too convinced they’ll actually do it since their competition (Instagram, Facebook) is free to use.

And even though Instagram makes it virtually impossible to be discovered anymore, it is still free BUT some could argue it’s not really free since you have to sponsor a post for it to reach your entire following nowadays. So now the question becomes would you rather pay $1.99 a month or $20 per every post you want to be seen by your entire audience? Hmm…

Another dilemma users were running into with Vero is that in the app’s terms and conditions, users grant Vero a limited royalty-free, blah, blah, blah use of your content and creatives were freaking out. However, Vero also says users own all content which apparently is rare these days and, from what I’ve read, Vero’s fine print essentially says the same thing as Facebook’s and Instagram’s so we can all breathe a little easier.

The other issue which is the most alarming and controversial is that Vero’s CEO was formerly affiliated with a company that acted unethically. Apparently Vero’s CEO is a billionaire whose family company refused to pay 31,000 workers when business went south. These workers were also living in squander (desert camps) while waiting to be paid. Obviously people are having a hard time with this one which is understandable.

But, to play devil’s advocate here, the CEO shared documents showing he left the family business in 2014 and wasn’t involved. Guilty by association? I’ll let you be the judge of that.

is vero the new Instagram?

The question on everyone’s mind is: Is Vero going to replace Instagram? And the answer is… we don’t know. I don’t know, you don’t know, no one knows. What we do know is it’s definitely a disruptor in the market.

Like I said earlier Vero has about 3 million users now and Instagram has 800 million and is expected to hit 1 billion this year. Is it possible for Vero to take over the charts? Sure, anything is possible. Will it happen? Probably not. Bu if Instagram keeps being a pain in the a$$ then who knows?!

The app is still blossoming if you will, so the actual purpose (how it’s different from what’s already out there) and native language has yet to be discovered which will come over time as more people join, if more continue to join.

Right now it’s just refreshing, interesting, and dare I say fun. So if you get on there be sure to follow me so we can chat: NOT ANOTHER BLONDE.

what does vero mean for bloggers?

Well, like I always say, don’t put all your eggs in one basket.

Nothing is certain right now but just by looking at how past social media has performed, the people who are “first to market” (aka the first ones on an app) are usually the ones who kill it.

If there’s one thing I regret it’s that I didn’t take Instagram seriously when I joined. And I literally got on Instagram 2 years after it launched, and at that time most bloggers didn’t even know what Instagram was. Shame on me.

But there I was, little naive Britt, posting pictures of flowers and rundown playgrounds (I thought I was being artistic) when I should have been posting #ootds and hashtagging the crap out of my pictures. But I didn’t and here we are.

At the time I didn’t understand the power of influence or marketing so lesson learned: when you go all in, you have to go all in. Research, trial, error, repeat is my motto now so I’m taking my chances with Vero and we’ll see where it goes.

Are you on Vero? Drop your username in the comments below and be sure to follow me: NOT ANOTHER BLONDE!

xx

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