Bluesky saw it enormous growth in the weeks after the American elections. As of Tuesday, there are 24 million users on the social media platform. With big involvement comes big responsibility, which means Bluesky CEO Jay Graber has a lot to do to deliver on her promise not to “shittify” the platform with ads while funding its explosive growth.
On Tuesday, at WIRED's Big Interview event in San Francisco, she vowed to keep that promise, saying the company is still “focused on making sure it's a good experience.” [for users] as we grow,” she said.
Enshittification, as it's known, generally comes as 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? “Subscriptions are the first step,” Graber said, referring to a plan to let users pay a flat fee for the ability to upload higher quality video or access certain customization features, for example.
With that in mind, Graber admitted that recent user growth has slowed the rollout of premium subscriptions. When asked if the feature would be coming soon, she replied, “That was the plan, but we've had a lot of growth lately.”
Bluesky was incubated as a social media experiment within Twitter, although it became fully independent before Elon Musk purchased its former parent company and changed the name to X. After Musk's purchase of Although after the US elections in November, in which Musk strongly supported Donald Trump, Bluesky started to attract millions of new users.
Jay Graber and Kate Knibbs at the big interviewPhoto: Tristan deBrauwere
During the post-election surge, Bluesky's full-time staff of 20 people sometimes struggled to accommodate the influx, with the site temporarily crashing a few times. As growth continues, Bluesky is now better equipped to handle its user base without interruption. During a recent interview with Casey Newton for the Platformer newsletter, the company said it has expanded the number of content moderators it works with from 25 to 100 contractors.
One of Bluesky's distinguishing features is the decentralized platform's focus on user customization and control. You can easily customize what you want to see through user lists, starter packs, and muted words. Power users even have the option to set up their own website hosting providers, if they decide to go through the process.
Despite Bluesky currently capturing the zeitgeist, Meta's Threads, another Twitter/X alternative, also 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 the competitive pressure, Meta has announced plans to add more customization options to Threads.
