X rival Bluesky gains 1.25M users in week after Trumps victory
Bluesky, a social media microblogging app reminiscent of rivals X and Threads, has welcomed 1.25 million new users to its platform in the week since the US election.Some of the new users switched to Bluesky to boycott X over billionaire owner Elon Musk’s allegiance to President-elect Donald Trump, according to posts on the app.“It’s appalling that Elon Musk has transformed Twitter into a Trump propaganda machine, rife with disinformation and misinformation,” one user posted on Bluesky, as reported by CNBC.Bluesky’s total userbase surged to 15 million, up from about 13 million at the end of October, the company said on Wednesday. “We’re excited to welcome everyone looking for a better social media experience,” Bluesky CEO Jay Graber told CNBC in a statement.Bluesky did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Some users on X applauded the exodus of left-leaning accounts.“‘Join me at Bluesky’ is the new ‘I’m moving to Canada,'” one user wrote.Though the Seattle-based startup saw an influx of users over the past week, the platform is still far behind its competitors.Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg in October said Threads, a new app launched in July 2023 by Instagram, had almost 275 million monthly users.Musk in May said X had 600 monthly users.
Market intelligence firm Sensor Tower estimated the platform had 318 million users in October, according to CNBC.In 2019, then-Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey applauded the creation of Bluesky.The social media app started as a project inside Twitter.
The platform remained an invitation-only space until this February, when it opened to the public.In May, Dorsey said he is no longer a member of Bluesky’s board.New Bluesky users will notice similarities to X’s set-up, like a “discover” feed and the ability to “direct message” other users.It’s not the first time Bluesky has won a flood of new users off X’s woes.
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