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| Photo by: geralt via Pixabay |
That it employs Russians adds controversy to the mystique surrounding the social media app called Vero, writes Lisa Marie Segarra for Time magazine.
Vero, which in Italian means truth, is the latest social media app to catch the attention of the American public in the wake of the tumult surrounding Facebook and Twitter.Photographers, videographers and social media influencers are raving about Vero because of its similarity to Instagram.Posts are also displayed in chronological order unlike in Instagram where posts are arranged by an algorithm.
Despite being free of advertisements and algorithm-driven feeds that have been the trademark of Facebook and Instagram, is it really worth joining Vero?The question is worth asking now that it is the second-most popular app on Apple App Store and is ahead of everyone on Google Play’s free apps chart.
For one, Vero was co-founded in 2015 by Ayman Hariri, who is its current CEO.He is the son of Rafic Hariri, the former Lebanese prime minister who was assassinated in 2005.The death of his father forced Hariri to migrate from the US to Saudi Arabia to work for Saudi Oger, the construction company started by his father, where he would later become its deputy CEO and vice-chairman.Saudi Oger was later closed by the Saudi government over allegations that it was not paying its workers who were living in cramped quarters, with barely enough food, money or medical attention.
Vero at the moment does not charge those using its platform but the company had previously stated that it will start imposing a subscription fee when its membership goes beyond one million.It has extended its free service indefinitely even if it has already passed the one million mark citing service interruptions as the reason.The company said it will soon release information about its planned paid subscription, which is intended to make its service remain free of ads.
Others criticize the lack of gender diversity in its workforce, which supposedly is composed mainly of Russian developers.
Given all these things, Vero maybe the latest app to go the way of Instagram and Facebook wannabes such as Peach, Mastodon, Ello, and even Sarahah, which have fallen on the waysides of social media.Really in the end, Vero may just be another crash-and-burn thing.
