Vero challenges Facebook

As the social medium’s popularity wanes, another platform is taking the internet by storm. We look at why Vero could be the next big thing

IT’S no secret that Facebook is losing fans. Thanks to fake news, irritating algorithms, targeted ads and those annoying old high school classmates you should probably get around to unfriending, it’s likely you’re using the social network less and less.

As is the nature of things, someone is stepping in to fill the gap. Vero raced to the top of app stores’ charts worldwide recently, and is raking in rave reviews.

It claims to put the “social” back into social media. The premise is simple – a newsfeed of posts from all the people you follow or have connected with, displayed chronologically.

According to its manifesto Vero aims to correct the “imbalance [that] began to form between the interests of the platforms and the users. A false sense of connection left us lonelier than ever. So we decided to create something more authentic. We created a social network that lets you be yourself. Hence the name Vero, meaning truth.”

Vero, which has been around since 2015, has seen a surge in sign-ups this year. Last month it had about 500 000 users; now the number is more than three million.

The platform’s no-ads policy is pretty attractive, as is its promise never to share users’ info, habits, likes and dislikes with third parties the way Facebook and other social media do to target advertising.

You can target posts to categorised groups of people – for example, only those classified as “close friends” will see pictures of your family holiday.

It’s also easy to use and find your way around, if you’re used to social media.

The creator of Vero is billionaire Ayman Hariri (39), son of former Lebanese prime minister Rafic Hariri. He told CNN he came up with the idea after noticing Facebook friends “acting quite differently to how I knew them to be in the real world”.

“In the real world we don’t have an audience,” he said. “We treat different people in our lives differently based on degrees of intimacy. The greatest social network that exists is the one between people in the real world.”

A drawback is the subscription fee users might have to pay in future. Vero initially promised a free, lifetime membership to the first million users – and despite the upswing in downloads, it decided to extend the offer. So best sign up fast!