Enter App.net. Its a aimed at creating a real-time social feed without the ads, and bills itself as a service that puts users first.

In other words, App.net is aiming to recreate Twitter, but with a different business model. Twitter famously launched without any monetization strategy in place, freely giving away access to its API, apps to its users, and its service; only after several years did it launch concepts like Promoted Tweets and Promoted Accounts to make money.

To achieve its goals, App.netat least for nowoperates exclusively as a for-pay service. A $50 payment grants you a year of access to the service; $100 gets you that along with access to the App.net API.

The project raised more than half a million dollars to fund initially, and continues to accept signups now. Its slowly rolling out access to for using the service. Already third-party Web, mobile, and desktop App.net apps.