Vero is taken from the Latin language, meaning truth or to speak the truth.
"Vero is a social network for anyone who loves anything enough to share it – and wants control over who they share it with. Just like we do in real life" - Vero
In the last week Vero has seemingly blown up. Vero has been running for a while now so why the sudden action?
It appears, from what I can see, that this is due to Blogger/Influencer signups. Which I believe to be primarily due to the lack of marketing ads and algorithms (a big part of the Vero promotional video).
Vero have made it easy to assign your contacts to groups: Close Friends, Friends, Acquaintances and Followers. This is fairly similar to the set up Google+ had/has with circles, which was my favourite thing about Google+.
The lack of an algorithm and showing posts in chronological order has received lots of positive feedback initially. I believe this to be particularly relevant given all the 'feedback' Instagram has had lately.
Having had a little look around media appears to be a big, almost central, part of Vero. Kinda similar to MSN's I'm listening to feature (anyone remember that?). I believe there is a swipe to buy option and more 'buy now' links will be available as brands join and create a presences on the site.
Its not all positive though. Looking though the T&Cs you'll notice that you are signing over all rights to the things you upload. So not great for those that would post media content onto the site. I'm thinking mainly about photos here. However, I'm not sure that this is any different to other social media sites. I have always been of the option that Facebook owns everything you post on that site. Though I'm not 100% sure.
Membership fees... The money has to come from somewhere. If theres no marketing or ads and Vero are not holding your data then it makes sense that they would need to charge. Much like Friends Reunited did when it started up. I remember Mum sending her cheque of for her membership years (decades) back. But this will put some people off. Which leads to the next issue.
People. At the moment the only people I know on the site are fellow Bloggers. So my feed will be pretty samey and limiting on who I can connect with. Much like the reason I never really got on with Google+, if there isn't a spread of people you already know / connect with, then how much will you use the site? How engaging will it be?
I have said for about 3 years there will be a new social media site that will knock Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc out of the water. Like MSN, MySpace and Facebook before it, this new site will engage people in a new way and encrouapge users to share more and experience 'social media' in a new way.
Is Vero that site? I don't think so.
That said, that doesn't mean it will not find its own place in the social media field.
What do you think of Vero? Will you stay once you have to pay?
**Images from vero.co