“I didn’t need more ways for people to contact me and I just felt like it exposes you quite a bit.
“When I did [join existing social networks], I found the options for privacy were quite limited and difficult to understand, and also when I decided to get on and connect with a few of my friends, I noticed that their behavior online was very different than their behavior in the real world,” he told CNBC.com via telephone.
No data mining
Vero (meaning “true” in Italian) aims to put design and experience first, Hariri said, and it won’t mine users’ data to attract advertisers.
“Every decision that we take, every detail we put into the app is all centred around a great user experience, and to have a social experience online that is more matching and more familiar and intuitive to their offline social interaction.
“And we felt that by excluding ads out of our business model allows us to focus on that, it allows us to look at our users as our customers, rather than advertisers,” he said.
The app will eventually cost a few dollars a year, but is currently free to the first million people who download it. While there is no paid-for advertising within the app, companies are able to create profiles, and “influencers” will also be allowed to promote brands, as they do on other social networks.
