Ello, the social media network known as the "anti-Facebook," was initially used by about 90 friends of is founder Paul Budnitz, according to BBC News.

Now, Ello is receiving up to 31,000 requests an hour from people who want to join the social media network, according to Budnitz, who is a bike shop owner from Vermont.

The up and coming network is by no means competing against Facebook. Ello has reportedly pledged to carry no adverts or sell user data.

"We don't consider Facebook to be a competitor. We see it as an ad platform and we are a network," explained Budnitz.

The network reportedly plans to make a profit by selling access to "features."

"Like the app store, we're going to sell features for a few dollars," stated Budnitz.

Although Ello's founder has claimed that there is no rivalry with Facebook, the network is already being compared to the popular social media site. According to a review on Technology Review, Ello, unlike Facebook, is free of "status updates, trending topics, and ads imploring me to click on things my friends 'like.'"

Despite Ello's refreshing approach, the site reportedly doesn't appear as user-friendly compared to more established networks as it has a minimalist design that may or may not work for some people. However, the curiosity surrounding Ello is still high as the network reportedly had to get through a Distributed Denial of Service due to an influx of Internet traffic, which briefly kept the site offline over the weekend.

"We're learning as we go but we have a very strong tech crew and back end. It's in beta and it's buddy and it does weird stuff - and it's all being fixed as quickly as we can," stated Budnitz.