There's a new social network in town and the man leading it is Jimmy Wales, best known as the founder of Wikipedia. TPO.com positions itself as "a whole new social network - similar to Twitter but better."
TPO.com is operated by mobile phone network The People's Operator of which Wales is co-chair. The People's Operator is a for-profit business that claims to pass on 10% of each customer's bill directly to causes chosen by the customer.
The social network will be advertising free and is banking on word of mouth to spread the word.
In a manifesto posted on the website Wales depicts advertising as a big evil. Users of social networks, according to Wales, are treated as "a commodity to be sold to advertisers."
"This leads naturally to intrusive use of your data and an inherent conflict between what you want and what advertisers need," he adds.
Wales says that all the money spent on advertising is a waste as we now "live in an era where word of mouth is more powerful than ever before."
TPO.com also highlights different causes that users can follow and donate to.
TPO appears to be a mix of both Twitter and Facebook. The stream of posts and the prominent hashtag display give it a Twitter-like appearance while the absence of character limits (unlike 140 on Twitter) and the Like feature gives it a Facebookish feel.
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