Digiday: Bluesky uncovered: separating myth from reality in its post-election surge

November 20, 2024

Check out our Associate Director of Social Media + Communications, Christopher Spong, in Digiday!

Bluesky uncovered: separating myth from reality in its post-election surge

While the platform resembles X’s interface, the way it operates is fundamentally different. That’s down to its decentralized nature (the platform is built on the AT Protocol — an open, decentralized network), which allows users more control over their data and content. How so? Because user data isn’t stored on centralized servers the way they are on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok, for example.

“Our open social network returns choice to users, gives developers the freedom to build, and gives creators independence from platforms,” Bluesky’s Emily Liu told Digiday.

Bluesky is giving Threads and X a run for their money

If you believed the headlines, you might think that’s the case. But it’s not quite true. Sure, users might be leaving X, saying they’re heading over to Bluesky, but the platform still has a way to go to compete.

Liu told Digiday that Bluesky has already reached 19.8 million users, about a million new users per day over the past few days.

“The majority of new users this week are coming from the U.S., U.K., and Canada, though our top three countries on the network are the U.S., Japan, and Brazil,” she said.

To compare, Meta’s Adam Mosseri posted that Threads had passed the 275 million user mark on Nov. 3, while the last recorded user figures for X was 570 million monthly active users.

“The single greatest hurdle to clear is the attraction and retention of influential users from across the cultural spectrum,” said Christopher Spong, associate director, social media at Collective Measures. “X, and Twitter before it, was a communications cornerstone where the perspectives of world leaders, athletes, celebrities, and journalists could be found. Drawing in these entities, or enough of them, will be essential to Bluesky’s survival.”

Read the full article here