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It’s notoriously difficult to quit social media. One of the hottest startups in technology thinks it has a solution. Bluesky, a near-copy of Elon Musk’s X, set out to build a social networking site where luring users to rivals was more than just a risk.
Bluesky started as a project within what was then Twitter before being spun out in 2022. That heritage is evident from the blue logo to the feel of the digital shopfront. Many of its 25 million users, who have nearly doubled since the US presidential election in November, have joined to distance themselves from Musk, whose X ownership is now one of his hallmarks. are.
However, Bluesky’s premise differs from that of its ancestors. It was created as a decentralized social network, meaning that users’ posts and connections are not controlled by one company and are distributed across the Internet. Bluesky’s servers and apps that share a common protocol are collectively referred to as the “Atmosphere.” X builds walls around your accounts and data, but Bluesky doesn’t.
This means that users could theoretically bring their Bluesky presence into other apps that are set up to accept Bluesky presence. Anyone with the time and inclination can use its open-source toolbox to create their own alternative platforms with different features and moderation rules, allowing users to move freely between platforms. Brusky calls this a “trusted exit.” It’s like moving house, you notice the furniture is already in place, your friends are notified, and your emails are automatically redirected.
All of which are great for users. Actually, the problem is that this whole idea is so new that Bluesky’s app is pretty much the only game out there. Contributors can host their data on their own servers instead of Bluesky’s servers if they wish, but most submitters don’t do this because it’s a hassle. Therefore, a reliable exit remains mostly theoretical. Facebook owner Meta Platforms is also considering a similar concept with an X-like Threads service called fediverse.
Even a great idea doesn’t necessarily create a great business model. Bluesky is designed not to trap you in a gilded cage. But investors like gilded cages, as Meta’s $1.6 trillion market cap shows. Allowing punters to move freely has made it much harder to squeeze revenue out of them, especially since chief executive Jay Graeber has vowed not to “power the network with advertising.”
It doesn’t matter right now that there isn’t a viable path to making a lot of money. According to Crunchbase, Bluesky has raised just $36 million in outside capital, with a third of that coming from Twitter. The company is also slim with about 20 full-time employees. It doesn’t last long. When Musk acquired Twitter in 2022, Twitter had 7,500 employees. Graeber does a great job of putting users first, but the next executive financial backer will want to know if she can do that without putting users on the back burner.
john.foley@ft.com
