UmeNow vows to kill Facebook, dismisses Google+
UmeNow is a brand new social network that isn't satisfied just competing with the likes of Facebook and Google+. In fact, UmeNow has declared it will destroy Facebook's lead in the social networking market and has dismissed Google+ as a competitor in the first place. The new service is calling itself "the first and only ad-free social communication service in the world that is totally focused on privacy."
UmeNow was founded by a former single mom who has been very vocal about online privacy. She has been even more outspoken against Facebook: "We will kill off the Facebook data eating monster," Castillo-Bach said in a statement. To make her point, she's calling UmeNow's marketing campaign "Facebook is Trash, National Privacy Celebration." The above video, which appears to be part of this anti-Facebook push, depicts a heroine (representing UmeNow) defending a person who is being followed by some sort of stalker (representing Facebook).
UmeNow has a $6.00 monthly subscription fee (you can sign up for a one-month free trial), which gives you the following features:
- No ads.
- No tracking and No data mining.
- No selling of personal information.
- All third party apps banned.
- Anonymous posting allowed.
- Protection from privacy violations by "free" sites.
"Our service is all about privacy. Facebook is a professional data collector. Google is the mothership of all data collectors. It has nothing on us. They're not even in our league. Let's not forget, Google chief Eric Schmidt told the world straight up that Google+ is not even a social network. It's an 'identity verification' service. Anyone still think these giants really care about privacy? We've designed the perfect anti-Facebook service. We give you everything they won't while still making it easy and simple to connect with friends. Because we have no ads, we could care less about your private information or collecting data on you. Our only focus is to give you the power to connect and share without risk. Our belief is that most people crave privacy and resent Facebook for limiting their access to it," Castillo-Bach said in a statement.
Facebook and Google have definitely had their fair share of privacy issues, and competitors are always a good thing. That being said, I'm just not sure UmeNow is taking the right approach here: attacking a competitor right from the get-go isn't the best approach.
If you want to keep up with UmeNow, you can follow the company on Twitter. I wonder why they don't have equivalent accounts on Facebook and Google+?
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