'Anti-Facebook' platform Ello attracts thousands

Social media network Ello is currently receiving up to 31,000 requests an hour from people wishing to join its platform, its founder has told the BBC.

It was initially designed to just be used by about 90 friends of its founder Paul Budnitz.

But the bike shop owner, from the US state of Vermont, opened it to others on 7 August.

It has been dubbed the "anti-Facebook" network because of a pledge to carry no adverts or sell user data.

However some experts have cautioned that it might struggle with plans to charge micro-payments for certain "features".

The site has a minimalist design and does not appear as user-friendly, at first glance, as more established networks.

Ello founder Paul Budnitz Ello founder Paul Budnitz is a bike shop owner from the US state of Vermont
It has already survived a reported Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack - a targeted flood of internet traffic - which briefly knocked it offline over the weekend.

"We're learning as we go but we have a very strong tech crew and back end," founder Paul Budnitz told the BBC.

"It's in beta and it's buggy and it does weird stuff - and it's all being fixed as quickly as we can."

:story: BBC News