ByTamara Roper

There have been rumours circulating for a little while now to suggest that we’re all getting a bit sick of Facebook. The way we use it has certainly changed, what with the high proportion of grandparents who’ve brought down the exclusivity of posting photos of big night outs, though it certainly still has massive use from a business and commercial point of view.

Just like Zuckerberg came and stole the crown from MySpace Tom and the Bebo bots, it’s only a matter of time before karma comes and kicks him in the teeth, and takes the title of most popular social network. As it stands, it’s looking like karma might just be new kid on the block,ello.

According to the BBC, ello, which has been open for business for about a month, has been receiving up to 31,000 requests an hour from people who want to join. If this level continues, it’ll have over 52 million users by the end of October - just behind the population of England.

Will you be one of the 52 million who are part of this currently private social network? What does it even do? Here’s what we know...

It looks sleek A/F

Whereas Facebook is user-friendly and arguably quite chunky, ello is sleek in its design, monochrome and clean, with circles and straight lines dominating its layout. None of the glaring adverts or pop-ups that clutter Facebook either, which is something its creatorPaul Budnitzprides himself on.

It’s private, for now

Originally built as a private network, ello apparently got so many requests that they’ve started to open it up, though you can’t just start up straight away. You have to know someone whose ‘in’ already, or request to join. It’s a case of who you know, not what you know.

It looks like a cross between EVERYTHING

And by everything, we mean everything. Profile pictures look like chat heads, you can tag people with the @ button and follow them too, there appear to be emojis AND you can post pictures like ontumblr and Instagram. A hybrid of all the other networks or just a big copy? We’ll have to wait and see. There isn’t a ‘like' button,however, which could prove detrimental.

You can ‘hang out with brands’ on it

Which is probably the most millennial thing anybody ever said, ever. Certain brands can start up their own ello pages (not dissimilar to creating a Facebook fan page)and eventually, you’ll be able to buy ‘features’, which to us sounds a bit like being on The Sims, but in reality is more like an App Store. This is how ello will hypothetically remain ad-free.

You can divide and conquer your friends

Which is great. By splitting them up into ‘friends’ and ‘noise’ you can keep an eye on people you like and shelve the people who are, quite rightly, background noise.

Will it take over from Facebook? Popular opinion on ‘the internet’ seems to suggest no - it doesn’t have the staying power, and it’s still bugged out and slow. Still, with 31,000 requests to join an hour, we want in to see what the fuss is about.