X users jump to Bluesky – but what is it and who owns it?

What is Bluesky?

Bluesky describes itself as “social media as it should be.” It looks similar to other social media platforms, with features like search, notifications, a homepage, and the ability to post, comment, repost, and like content.

Key Features

• Decentralized: Users can host their data on servers other than those owned by the company.

• Custom domains: Users can pay for custom domains in their username, making it more official-sounding.

Bluesky is run and predominantly owned by chief executive Jay Graber as a US public benefit corporation. It was created by Jack Dorsey, the former head of Twitter, who wanted it to be a decentralized version of Twitter that no single person or entity owns.

Notable Users

• Ben Stiller

• Jamie Lee Curtis

• Patton Oswalt

• Lizzo

• Greg Davies

Why is Bluesky Gaining in Popularity?

Bluesky has been growing rapidly, with around one million new sign-ups per day. It had 16.7m users at the time of writing, but this figure will likely be outdated by the time you read this.

Recent Events

• The number of new Bluesky users spiked following Donald Trump’s success in the US elections.

• Some people have left X in protest due to its perceived toxicity.

• The Guardian newspaper has stopped posting on X due to its toxic media platform status.

Why is Bluesky Gaining Popularity?

• Invitation-only phase from 2019 to February 2024 allowed developers to stabilize the platform.

• Spike in new users following Donald Trump’s success in the US elections, with some people leaving X in protest over its perceived toxicity.

• Several celebrities have announced they are joining the platform and limiting their use of or leaving X.

Bluesky Statistics

• Current user base: 16.7 million (as of writing)

• Daily sign-ups: around one million

• Top free app in the Apple App Store in the UK on Thursday