Twitter rival Bluesky hits new milestone

Access to app is extended via a wait list and through invitations from existing users

Bluesky has hit a new milestone as it has passed over one million registered users.

The social media platform, created by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, has surged in popularity as an alternative to X after users sought to leave the Elon Musk-owned app. Under Mr Musk, Twitter has been rebranded as X.

Bluesky hit the milestone on Tuesday, with Rose Wang, who works on strategy and operations at the platform, sharing a screenshot of the moment it gained over a million users.

Bluesky still seems to be in its early stages, taking a careful approach and growing slowly as it caters to its cohort of initial adopters.

Choosing this cautious approach, access to the app is extended via a waitlist and through invitations from existing users.

The app was first announced by Mr Dorsey when he was still in charge of Twitter, tasking developers to build a “decentralised standard” for social media.

“The biggest and long-term goal is to build a durable and open protocol for public conversation. That it not be owned by any one organisation but contributed by as many as possible. And that it is born and evolved on the internet with the same principles,” Mr Dorsey wrote on the app in 2020.

Bluesky has seen upticks in requests for signups following Mr Musk’s takeover of X, as the Tesla titan brought about sweeping changes to his platform, including initiating mass layoffs, the removal of blue checkmarks for non-paying users and modifications to content rules.

At one point in July, Bluesky had to halt sign-ups due to a huge surge in demand, following Mr Musk imposing limits on the number of tweets people could read on X – a move that was later reversed.

Bluesky’s approach to carefully onboard users is also in contrast to Meta’s Threads platform, which has emerged as another one of Twitter’s competitors in recent times.

Meta’s decision to cross-promote Threads to existing Instagram users led to the app racking up close to 30 million signups in less than 24 hours, and over 100 million users within the first five days.

But even with the recent roll-out of a web app – a much-anticipated feature – Threads’ traffic appears to be on a worrying dip, with its number of daily active users much lower than during its heyday just after it launched.