Why Are Users Moving to BlueSky After Elon Musk’s Appointment to Trump’s Cabinet?

You might have come across the term ‘BlueSky’ on social media recently and wondered what it is and why people are talking about it.BlueSky is an alternative platform to Elon Musk’s social network X (formerly Twitter). In terms of appearance and logo design, it closely resembles X.

BlueSky has been gaining rapid popularity, with around a million new users joining every day. As of writing, BlueSky has 7.16 million users. However, given its rapid growth, by the time you read this, that number may have increased significantly.

What is BlueSky?

According to BlueSky, it is a social media platform, albeit similar to other platforms. On the left side of the screen, there is a bar featuring home, search, notifications, chat, and lists.

Users can post, comment, repost, and like content on this platform. In many ways, BlueSky is reminiscent of the former Twitter (now X).

The primary difference between BlueSky and other social networks is that it is ‘decentralised’. This means users can store their data not only on BlueSky’s own servers but also on other servers. This allows users to use an account beyond the BlueSky extension, although most users do not take advantage of this feature. Typically, new user accounts are named with the extension xyz.bsky.social.

Who Owns BlueSky?

BlueSky looks similar to X for a reason—it was created by Twitter’s former CEO, Jack Dorsey. Dorsey once expressed his desire for BlueSky to be a decentralised version of Twitter, not owned by any single entity.

However, Dorsey is no longer part of the BlueSky team; he resigned from the board in May 2024 and deleted his BlueSky account in September.

Currently, BlueSky is led by CEO Jay Graber and operates as a public American company.

Why is BlueSky Becoming Popular?

BlueSky has been operational since 2019 and was only accessible by invitation until February this year. This strategy allowed developers to address technical issues and create a stable platform before a broader rollout.

The plan was relatively successful, but the influx of new users in November led to service disruptions, which are ongoing.

The surge in new users came after Donald Trump’s victory in the US elections. Elon Musk, owner of X, is a significant supporter of Trump and is poised for a prominent role in his administration.

This development has sparked political divisions, prompting some users to leave X in protest.

Of course, there are other reasons why people are leaving X. For instance, the UK’s Guardian newspaper described X as a ‘toxic media platform’ and decided to stop publishing on it.

In response, many people around the world have downloaded the BlueSky app, which recently topped the UK app store charts.

Celebrities ranging from pop star Lizzo to Taskmaster’s Greg Davies have announced they are reducing their activity on X and joining BlueSky. Some have even said they are leaving X altogether.

Other notable personalities joining BlueSky include Ben Stiller, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Patton Oswalt.

While BlueSky’s growth is impressive, it still has a long way to go before posing a serious challenge to X.

X does not publish accurate user numbers, but it is believed to have millions of users. Elon Musk has claimed that X has 250 million daily active users.

How Does BlueSky Make Money?

This is the million-pound question!

Initially, BlueSky was funded by investments from individuals and venture capital firms, raising tens of millions of dollars.

However, with the current surge in user numbers, the company will need to find new ways to cover its costs.

In its prime, Twitter made most of its revenue through advertising. BlueSky has stated it does not intend to rely on ads for revenue. Instead, it is exploring other ways to generate income, such as charging users for custom domain handles.

This concept, while somewhat complex, allows users to personalise their handles. For instance, an existing handle like @Tom.bsky.social could be changed to @Tom.bbc.co.uk.

Supporters of this idea argue that it could also function as a verification method, as the organisation owning the domain would need to approve its use.

If BlueSky’s leadership sticks to its no-advertising policy, it may need to consider other revenue options such as subscription services.

It’s not surprising that BlueSky isn’t currently profitable—many tech start-ups face this challenge. In fact, before Elon Musk acquired X in 2022, Twitter had only been profitable twice in its eight years on the stock market.

We all know how that ended—Twitter investors received a significant payout when the world’s richest man purchased it for $44 billion.The future of BlueSky is uncertain, but if its growth continues, anything is possible.