There is a new social networking platform in town and it offers one thing that people have been asking Facebook: No ads.

Ello is a new, ad-free social networking site that many believe poses a threat to Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook. Launched six weeks ago, Ello is not yet fully functional and is still in its beta phase.

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However, people who want to experience what Ello offers can only access the site once if they get invited.

There are over 35,000 invites every hour and according to sources, users can set up their profile in just a few minutes. The new social networking site's features, many described, are user-friendly and edgy.

Word has also gotten around that Ello's Silicon Valley programmers are luring younger people and users to switch to their site.

Recent figures show that more than 31,000 people are switching to Ello every hour because the new social networking platform mirrors what Facebook was when it first started.

Facebook was designed as a communication-hangout platform for the youth, but later on discovered by older and much younger demographics that defeated its original purpose.

Emerson College's digital marketing professor David Gerzof Richard said he has heard some great reviews from people who have tried the new platform. He said people think it has an artistic feel and find it appealing.

By contrast, Facebook is like a coloring book where people have had to "color between the lines", said Richard.

However, last week, the new site was down for almost 45 minutes as reports suggest it has been hacked and a message displayed on the users' screens read Distributed Denial of Service". The programmers were able to resolve the issue as they have blocked the IP addresses of the hackers who attacked the website.

Ello is reportedly standing pat on their goal to make the site advertisement-free, although it remains unclear how the site plans to monetize its operations to make it profitably viable.

Experts are now asking where Ello would get their funds as maintaining a site requires money.

During Facebook's early days, it started out without ads. By 2006, it opened its doors to advertisers with prospects of generating and increasing the site's revenue.

Meanwhile, Ello developers are okay with users not wanting to share any information about themselves, which also addresses the privacy issue that Facebook has been saddled with in recent years.

The programmers and designers of the new platform is yet to comment on this and will update as soon as we get word.

TagsEllo, Technology Internet, Computing, World wide web, Mark Zuckerberg