Replacing Twitter, this time it’s really promising.

Written by: Moonshot, Geek Park

If you were to name the two biggest star users of X right now, who would you think of? Trump and Musk might be the answers for many.

The follower ranking on X shows that Trump and Musk are the most active users among the top ten｜Image source: Wikipedia

Trump's return to the White House was significantly aided by X and his buddy Musk. Back then, discontent with the "political correctness" of other social media and Trump's ban from Twitter led Musk to acquire Twitter.

After Musk's sweeping changes to X, including renaming, layoffs, and subscription services, the platform's valuation has plummeted from $44 billion at the time of acquisition to about $9.4 billion, a nearly 80% decrease. Company revenue has also dropped by 84%, and many major advertisers have ceased their spending on X.

The most alarming part is:

Users are leaving.

X's global daily active users have decreased by 15%, while U.S. users have dropped by 18%. Following the U.S. elections, this user exodus has accelerated. On the day of the election vote counting, over 115,000 American users chose to deactivate their X accounts, setting a record high since Musk took over.

Suspected of trying to cover up user loss, Musk announced last week that he would hide the data on "likes, comments, and retweets" on the X platform. Musk's reasoning for this was that "the interface looks much cleaner this way."

Musk hides the numbers for likes and other metrics on X｜Image source: X

However, users do not disappear; they simply migrate, and one of the destinations for X users is Bluesky.

On the same day as the election vote counting, Bluesky attracted about 1.2 million visitors, surpassing Threads' 950,000 visitors. On November 14, Bluesky announced that it had gained about 2.5 million new users in the past week, bringing its total user count to over 16 million, with daily active users soaring to 3.5 million. By November 19, Bluesky officially surpassed 20 million users, a 300% increase since election day.

So what is Bluesky? Is it a "gentle alternative" to X, or just another fleeting social platform, or perhaps the successor to Twitter from the pre-Musk era?

01 The True Successor to Twitter

When you open Bluesky's page, you might think you've entered a Twitter profile.

This is because it is based on the former Twitter and originated from the Twitter company, even aiming to become an idealized version of Twitter from the start.

It feels too much like Twitter｜Image source: Bluesky

Bluesky began in 2019 when Twitter founder and then-CEO Jack Dorsey announced the Bluesky project on Twitter. They aimed to establish a standard for an open and decentralized social media platform, ensuring user profiles are more secure and content delivery is less influenced by algorithms.

Jack Dorsey also revealed this plan in 2019, expressing a desire for Twitter to ultimately meet this decentralized standard.

Bluesky became independent from Twitter in 2021, forming Bluesky Social, and after Musk took over Twitter in 2022, Bluesky severed all legal and financial ties with Twitter and began accelerating app development.

Bluesky's original intention was to create a set of technical standards for decentralized social media, and after 2022, they aimed to directly become a decentralized version of Twitter.

In February of this year, Bluesky officially opened for registration, accumulating 20 million users in just ten months, and is currently experiencing rapid growth.

Bluesky's interface is almost identical to Twitter's｜Image source: Bluesky

Bluesky is very similar to Twitter in form. Posts can contain text, images, and videos within 300 characters, and users can reply, retweet, quote, and like. Although CEO Jay Graber strongly disagrees, Bluesky users refer to posts on the platform as "skeets" (Sky + Twitter).

What makes Bluesky so popular is not just its high similarity to Twitter in form, but its contrasting model to X in terms of technology and content.

02 What X Opposes, We Advocate

The core technology of Bluesky is the AT protocol, which allows different social media platforms to communicate with each other. Users can follow and interact with each other across different platforms without relying on a single centralized platform.

Users can also choose where their data is stored, whether on their own servers or cloud storage, and the AT protocol ensures that user data is not locked into a single platform. Even if users decide to stop using Bluesky, they can easily take their content and data with them.

From the moment an account is created, users can choose the server for content storage｜Image source: Bluesky

In other words, users are spared the hassle of opening one app after another to scroll through feeds, worrying about losing data if their accounts are banned, and considering migration costs while feeling compelled to use a social platform they don't particularly like.

Bluesky aims to give developers the freedom to build platforms and users the right to leave.

In contrast, how does X operate? Recently, Musk subtly indicated that X is actively limiting the visibility of posts containing external links. In October 2023, he admitted, "Our algorithm optimizes the time users spend on X, so external links are not given much importance because if people jump through links, they will spend less time on X."

Criticism from renowned tech observer Paul Graham｜Image source: X

In January last year, X officially banned third-party clients, leading to the demise of many well-known third-party applications from the Twitter era. In February, X also discontinued its free API, and on October 30, X announced that the lowest-tier API package would increase from $100 to $200.

A series of blocking actions stem from Musk's desire to keep users, data, and money within X, but the actual result is that all three are leaking away.

Today, X and Bluesky, which has inherited from Twitter, are like two incarnations of platform icons, one starkly black and white, centralized X, facing off against the butterfly named Bluesky, which evolved from the blue bird.

The platforms have completely different qualities｜Image source: Author's creation

In terms of content, the differences between Bluesky and X are even more pronounced.

X's control over external links and its leniency towards fake news have sparked extreme dissatisfaction among traditional journalists and media. In early November, the British newspaper The Guardian announced that it would no longer post officially on X, calling it "a toxic media platform," and stating that its owner (Musk) "uses his influence to shape political discourse."

Previously, foreign media reported that Musk adjusted the platform's recommendation algorithm to increase the visibility of right-leaning content; according to a 2024 Pew Research Center study, X is becoming increasingly popular among right-leaning users, with the spread and interaction of right-leaning content becoming more frequent.

The two star figures on X—Musk and Trump—have also publicly supported right-wing political figures and views multiple times over the past two years, even expressing support for the far-right party "Alternative for Germany" (AfD) in Germany.

As we enter the election phase this year, Musk has gone all out to support Trump. After the election, Deutsche Welle reported: "Musk not only publishes and spreads false information himself but also retweets and shares other posts containing false elements, misleading narratives, and conspiracy theories." According to a recent report from CCDH, from January to July 2024, Musk's posts on X garnered a total of 1.2 billion views for fake news.

His buddy comes to support｜Image source: AP

X is no longer a neutral social platform; fake news, conspiracy theories, harassing speech, gender antagonism, online violence, and extreme right-wing content are rampant on the platform, with X moving fully to the right.

Bluesky cannot be called neutral either. In February 2023, Bluesky began an invitation-only beta test, inviting a large number of users from minority communities and subcultural groups, including journalists, transgender individuals, Black artists, and left-wing political activists…

Both Vice and The Atlantic described Bluesky's early users as "weird," which is both a compliment and a reflection of the platform's diverse atmosphere.

Media praise Bluesky for maintaining its "weird" essence｜Image source: Vice

In a recent interview, Bluesky COO Rose Wang stated that the early goal of the open testing phase is to "cultivate a group of users who can help promote the Bluesky philosophy and narrate and reinforce community culture." Bluesky's terms of service also state that "discriminatory behavior based on 'race, gender, religion, ethnicity, nationality, disability, or sexual orientation' is prohibited."

It is clear that Bluesky stands in opposition to X in terms of platform inclination, leaning to the left.

Moreover, unlike X, which creates echo chambers through algorithms like "recommended follows," Bluesky's algorithms are also decentralized. Users can customize content recommendation algorithms based on their interests across different platforms, without relying on the algorithmic rules of a fixed platform. The official feature "custom summaries" also prevents users from getting trapped in endless algorithmic feeds.

Prompt before entering Bluesky｜Image source: Bluesky

Twitter was once a global square for breaking news and idea collisions (the name Twitter comes from "chirping"), but over time and with changes in leadership, it became X, transforming into an echo chamber and amplifier for a particular political ideology.

"I think the influx of new users to Bluesky is actually because people are too disgusted with X," said Bluesky COO Rose Wang.

03 How to Make Money, a Flash in the Pan?

Bluesky is not the first social platform to attempt to challenge X. The previously reported "00s social platform noplace" tried to become a younger version of Twitter, but after a brief surge, it has since faded away.

Emerging social media platforms are constantly appearing, but the reality remains that the flow of social media is transient, while Meta and X remain steadfast.

However, Bluesky is different; it originated from the legitimate Twitter team, inheriting Twitter's content format while innovating in technical approaches. They adhere to the principles of decentralization, diversity, freedom of speech, and data freedom, attempting to address the accumulated dissatisfaction with social media over the years: closure, algorithms, echo chambers, and online violence…

In the current online environment, Bluesky appears so perfect and idealistic.

But the question is, what sustains ideals? How can we ensure that Bluesky does not become the next Twitter that disappears after being acquired?

Perhaps learning from past experiences, Bluesky has made structural adjustments that differ from other tech companies.

In 2019, Bluesky received $13 million in development funding from Twitter, and by 2022, it became independent as Bluesky Social. Subsequently, Bluesky Social changed its nature to a "public interest corporation," allowing it to use its profits for public benefit without the obligation to pursue profit maximization and shareholder value.

According to official disclosures, as of the end of 2024, Bluesky's operating funds mainly come from investors and venture capital firms. On October 24, Bluesky announced that it had raised $15 million in Series A funding.

CEO Jay Graber also promised that Bluesky will remain free to use indefinitely and is currently not considering an advertising business model; they want to achieve commercialization while pursuing their values.

Bluesky CEO Jay Graber ｜Image source: Wired

The Bluesky team has reflected on the issues encountered during Twitter's commercialization: being overly focused on the platform, which forced it to shift from openness to closure in order to sell platform value. This tendency of Twitter has been accelerated under Musk's leadership of X.

Bluesky's approach to commercialization is to maintain platform openness, returning to their self-developed AT protocol. For example, they are already selling custom domain names to users, giving them naming rights beyond just nicknames, and opening the AT protocol to other applications to collect licensing fees.

At the same time, Bluesky is also considering paid subscription services, where users can pay to unlock higher quality videos, more customizable profiles, etc. Additionally, Bluesky is attempting to establish a peer-to-peer payment service within the creator community for purchasing digital artworks, paid articles, code, and tips.

However, at a time when new users are deactivating X accounts and registering on Bluesky, the financial pressure Bluesky faces is far less than the pressure on its servers.

"Opening Bluesky feels like logging into Twitter ten years ago. It's weird, but friendly. Every user is eager to learn," many new Bluesky users have expressed similar sentiments.

Bluesky also published a post on its official blog celebrating the completion of its Series A funding, with the previous round of funding heavily invested in developing anti-harassment and safety tools. They have now launched custom content summaries on the platform, open-sourced the moderation tool Ozone, and started selling custom domain names…

It seems that Bluesky's future is orderly and bright.

"Twitter refugees" rally around the "new king"｜Image source: Bluesky

At the end of the blog post, they wrote, "Traditional social media companies have closed off public data, shut down their APIs, cut off the livelihoods of independent developers, and deployed inscrutable black box algorithms. This old era of social media is over—at Bluesky, we are giving back choice and power to you."

Bluesky embodies the old spirit of the internet, emerging in a chaotic era empowered by AI, filled with fake news and extreme, opposing stances. Regardless of how long they can maintain their original intentions or whether they can fundamentally shake Meta and X, they have established a new set of rules, presenting the internet and social media as they should be.

The world desperately needs such social media.

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