Programmatic, Re-marketing & targeting are common words used in the digital marketing world (= my hopeful future world) and yet I find myself asking the primary question – Will this even be alive after 10 years?

Ello, the new kid on the block seems to have a rather harsh stance against all the 3 words that I used above.  Like a typical scene from the Scarlet Pimpernel, Ello’s website says ‘Your social network is owned by advertisers. Every post you share, every friend you make and every link you follow is tracked, recorded and converted into data. Advertisers buy your data so they can show you more ads. You are the product that’s bought and sold.’ 

Taken aback? Yes, all the social networks today work on one basic premise – We volunteer to give all our data & cookies. So what if we stop? Or we say hello to Ello?  Well then, dinosaurs, telegrams and Facebook will all have one thing in common i.e. extinction.

The’ industry ‘ seems to be quite sceptical about Ello’s  current business model saying that ‘it won’t last’. But the question is, will the ‘industry’ even  be the same? If websites such as Ello gain popularity and are successful in persuading Facebook users to move away, then digital marketers will find themselves without the user driven data they need to harness into marketing insights. If Internet users become more concerned about their privacy policy with alternative solutions such as Ello, targeted ads might (scarily so) be a thing of the past. Get ready, digital-spacecraft-warriors, the revolution has begun.

P.s:  If people are paying $7.99 for a Netflix account, I am sure they will spare some change to know that their private information and data is kept in Vault 713.