Bluesky saw massive growth in the weeks following the US elections. There are 24 million users on the social media platform as of Tuesday. With great commitment comes great responsibility, which means Bluesky CEO Jay Graber has a lot to do to retain her you promise not to “muddy” the platform with advertising while continuing to finance its explosive growth.
At WIRED’s Big Interview event in San Francisco on Tuesday, he vowed to make good on that promise, saying the company is still “focused on making sure it’s a good experience (for users) as it expands,” he said.
Enshittification, as it is known, generally comes when social media platforms expand and need to squeeze money out of users to please investors and keep the lights on. Since Bluesky doesn’t plan to run ads, WIRED senior writer Kate Knibbs asked, how does Bluesky plan to make money? “Memberships are the first step,” Graber said, referring to a plan to make users pay a regular fee for the ability to upload higher quality videos, for example, or access certain personalization features.
With this in mind, Graber admitted that recent user growth has delayed the launch of premium subscriptions. When asked if the feature was coming soon, she replied, “That was the plan, but we’ve had strong growth recently.”
Bluesky was incubated as a social media experiment within Twitter, although it became fully independent before Elon Musk’s purchase of its former parent company and name change to X. Musk’s purchase of great support behind Donald Trump, Bluesky began to attract millions of new users.
Jay Graber and Kate Knibbs at the big interviewPhotography: Tristan de Brauwere
During the post-election surgeBluesky’s full-time staff of 20 sometimes struggled to handle the influx, with the site crashing temporarily a few times. As growth continues, Bluesky is now better equipped to manage its user base seamlessly. During a recent interview with Casey Newton for the Platformer newsletterthe company said it has increased the number of content moderators it works with, from 25 to 100 contractors.
One of the distinctive features of Bluesky is the decentralized platform focus on user personalization and control. It’s simple to adjust what you want to see via user lists, starter packs, and muted words. Advanced users also have the option of setting up their own website hosting providers, if they decide to go through the process.
While Bluesky is currently capturing the zeitgeist, Meta’s Threads, another alternative to Twitter/X, continues to grow and remains much larger in size. Alec Booker, a spokesperson for Meta, told WIRED via email that more than 35 million new users signed up for Threads in November. Feeling competitive pressure, Meta has announced plans to More customization options to add to discussions.
