The Lebanese-run social media app Vero recently surged in popularity, and became the most downloaded social app in 18 countries, including in the United States, United Kingdom, Spain and France, according to Forbes.
Launched in 2015, Vero is an ad-free social app that connects users to their friends with pictures, links and videos. The content sharing is intuitive, and is separated by Close Friend, Friend, Acquaintance and Follower.
The founders describe the app as 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.”
Instead of advertisers, Vero runs on an annual subscription fee model and promised to keep the app free to its first million users.
Ayman Hariri, son of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafic Hariri, is the CEO and co-founder of the app. He said he aims to grab the market share of some of his largest competitors, including Facebook and Twitter.
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Unlike other companies in the social media space, Vero creators said the system is not based on algorithms and data mining to cater to advertisers.
Vero can be downloaded on the Apple or Google Play stores.