{"id":21732,"date":"2024-11-24T01:29:47","date_gmt":"2024-11-24T01:29:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=21732"},"modified":"2024-11-24T01:29:48","modified_gmt":"2024-11-24T01:29:48","slug":"bluesky-has-more-than-21-million-users-where-does-it-go-from-here","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=21732","title":{"rendered":"Bluesky has more than 21 million users. Where does it go from here?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Bluesky may look like X. It might share a co-founder with X. And as some people flock to the platform amid changes to X, the comparisons to the platform formerly known as Twitter are perhaps inevitable.<\/p>\n

But Bluesky doesn\u2019t want to be seen as an alternative to X at all, and instead has bigger ambitions, Rose Wang, COO of Bluesky, told us.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not positioning ourselves against X,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re positioning ourselves as the new social web.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bluesky certainly seems to have benefitted from X\u2019s woes and missteps. When Brazil temporarily banned X after it refused to remove accounts accused of spreading misinformation about the 2022 Brazilian presidential election, Bluesky saw 4 million sign-ups, Wang said. When X changed its policy to allow users blocked by someone to still be able to see their posts, she said it saw another surge.<\/p>\n

And now, following the US presidential election in which X owner Elon Musk was heavily involved, Bluesky has surpassed 21 million users worldwide, with 1 million sign-ups per day in the last week alone.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of hunger to have a place to have global conversation that isn\u2019t a partisan platform, and that\u2019s there\u2019s basically not many places that serve that need anymore,\u201d Wang said. \u201cWe\u2019re fulfilling that need.\u201d<\/p>\n

Amid that growth, Bluesky, which became open to the public in February and has just 20 full-time employees, is planning to capitalize on its momentum and aiming to change how social media companies do business.<\/p>\n

A \u201cdemocratic republic\u201d-type platform<\/h2>\n

Social media business models have traditionally depended on users joining and staying within its defined platforms and engaging with the content the platform chooses to promote.<\/p>\n

Wang said Bluesky\u2019s ambition is to be a \u201cdemocratic republic\u201d-type platform, with an open-source code and the option for users to take follower lists and data with them if they leave. She compared the platform to the early days of the internet, saying it\u2019s more like the open web instead of early walled gardens like AOL.<\/p>\n

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What’s happened to X proves the need for Bluesky. The future company is a possible adversary. We make decisions knowing that we won’t always be here or won’t always be able to control the company’s decisions. It’s why we’ve given you the freedom of exit to go elsewhere w your followers and data.<\/p>\n

[image or embed]<\/p>\n

\u2014 Rose \ud83c\udf39 (@rose.bsky.team) November 19, 2024 at 9:22 PM<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

By giving users control over their data, Bluesky is intentionally opting out of the more traditional means of profitmaking for a social media platform\u2014that is, selling that data to advertisers. To date, the company has relied on venture funding, and last month, pulled in $15 million in a Series A round.<\/p>\n

To help bolster that funding, Wang said the company will release paid subscription offerings later this year, including features like higher-quality video uploads and custom avatar frames. \u201cCore functionality\u201d features won\u2019t go to subscriber-only tiers, she said, adding that the company \u201cwould never put speech behind a paywall.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bluesky is also considering a payments system that could serve as an alternative to content monetization platforms like Patreon. If Bluesky were to go that route, the company could then take a cut of transaction fees, Wang said.<\/p>\n

Bluesky CEO Jay Graber has previously said the company won\u2019t \u201censhittify\u201d its platform with ads, and Wang said that if the platform were to become overrun with branded content, it would only be an incentive for people to leave. But she didn\u2019t rule out advertising entirely.<\/p>\n

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Get marketing news you’ll actually want to read<\/h5>\n

Marketing Brew informs marketing pros of the latest on brand strategy, social media, and ad tech via our weekday newsletter, virtual events, marketing conferences, and digital guides.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cIf we ever were to do ads, it would look a lot more like how ads work on the web, where it\u2019s intent-based,\u201d she said. \u201cThere are ways to do ads that are interesting and are not intrusive, but until we figure out what that model looks like, we\u2019re not going to touch it.\u201d<\/p>\n

While there may not be advertising options yet, Wang said Bluesky won\u2019t prevent brands from joining the platform.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are very clear that our primary user is the end user that we\u2019re serving, and so we\u2019re building features for them, \u201d Wang said. \u201cIf brands come, great, but you should be authentic; that\u2019s what we tell them. It\u2019s not going to work if you try to sound like a brand.\u201d<\/p>\n

Text posts, but make it less toxic<\/h2>\n

To date, Bluesky has spent nothing on marketing and has only recently started exploring earned media to get the word out. User growth to date has happened organically, Wang said, including the arrival of high-profile users, whom she said joined without any outreach or incentives.<\/p>\n

Wang said Bluesky is looking to reach users across the political spectrum and around the world and will emphasize that the platform is a place for \u201cthoughtful conversation, no matter what you believe.\u201d Nearly a third of the platform\u2019s users post on Bluesky, compared to about 1% on X, she told us, and some have already noted that Bluesky feels like the early days of Twitter\u2014with some even complaining that it\u2019s too wholesome.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe best marketing strategy is speaking to what people care about and what they\u2019re experiencing,\u201d Wang said. \u201cWhat we keep hearing is that people are making friends again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like with X, Wang is also not focused much on Threads, even though the Meta platform has 275 million users and is competing with Bluesky for the top spot on Apple\u2019s App Store charts.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re just doing our own thing,\u201d she said, adding that \u201cif anything, we heard that Threads is trying to do what we\u2019re doing\u201d\u2014referencing a recent announcement from Meta that the company will soon offer customizable feeds. (After we spoke to Wang, Threads made another announcement that it would de-emphasize recommended posts and would share more posts from accounts that users have opted to follow.)<\/p>\n

Having \u201c[blown] through a lot of our user milestones,\u201d Wang said her team is focused on getting subscriptions live and developing the next iteration of features, like bringing feed customizations to the app and allowing users to build their own websites using their Bluesky domains.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to go back to a world [online] that is co-created by all,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Before all that happens, though, there are smaller fish to fry. \u201cWe know people want bookmarks,\u201d she said. \u201cSo that needs to come.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Read the full article here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bluesky may look like X. It might share a co-founder with X. And as some people flock to the platform amid changes to X, the comparisons to the platform formerly known as Twitter are perhaps inevitable. But Bluesky doesn\u2019t want to be seen as an alternative to X at all, and instead has bigger ambitions, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21733,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[78],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-21732","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-marketing"},"yoast_head":"\nBluesky has more than 21 million users. Where does it go from here? | Brandiary<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Bluesky may look like X. It might share a co-founder with X. 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