Bluesky an alternative to X (Twitter)

14/11/2024

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Social media site Bluesky has gained 1 million new users in the week since the U.S. election, as some X users look for an alternative platform to post their thoughts and engage with others online.

Bluesky said Wednesday that its total users surged to 15 million, up from roughly 13 million at the end of October.

Championed by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, Bluesky was an invitation-only space until it opened to the public in February. That invite-only period gave the site time to build out moderation tools and other features. The platform resembles Elon Musk’s X, with a “discover” feed and a chronological feed for accounts that users follow. Users can send direct messages and pin posts and find “starter packs” that provide a curated list of people and custom feeds to follow.

The post-election uptick in users isn’t the first time Bluesky has benefitted from people leaving X. Bluesky gained 2.6 million users in the week after X was banned in Brazil in August — 85% of them from Brazil, the company said. About 500,000 new users signed up in one day last month, when X signaled that blocked accounts would be able to see a user’s public posts.

Despite Bluesky’s growth, X posted last week that it had “dominated the global conversation on the U.S. election” and had set new records. X said the platform saw a 15.5% jump in new-user signups on Election Day, with a record 942 million posts worldwide. Representatives for Bluesky and X did not respond to requests for comment.