Bluesky Sparks Content Creators’ Payments as New Subscriptions Rise Following Elon Musk’s Twitter Takeover
Bluesky, the social media platform that experienced tremendous growth last year, announced on Thursday that the company has raised a $15 million funding round, according to a post on the Bluesky website. The announcement also includes hints about what’s to come, such as possible subscriptions, payments, and other new features in the future.
Blockchain Capital led the new funding round, according to the announcement made by Bluesky on Thursday, along with participation from Alumni Ventures, True Ventures, SevenX, and Amir Shevat from Darkmode. However, Bluesky was quick to clarify in its announcement that it does not actually endorse cryptocurrencies and has no plans to accept tokens or NFTs on the platform.
The company stated in its statement: “This does not change the fact that Bluesky application and AT protocol do not use blockchain or cryptocurrency, and we will not fund the social experiment excessively (through tokens, cryptocurrency trading, NFTs, etc.).”
Bluesky faces a new wave of subscriptions as Elon Musk’s Twitter account (now officially known as X) engages in some elements of the experience there. Bluesky added three million users in the past month alone, increasing from 10 million users to 13 million, with much of this growth directly attributed to Musk’s legal antics in Brazil and the recent announcement that the X ban function will soon disappear.
What’s next after this latest round of funding? Bluesky recently introduced features like direct messages and video, which make it more similar to what X already offers. But there are some more expansive ideas on the horizon, including paid subscriptions for features like uploading high-quality videos and profile customizations.
However, Rose Wang, COO of Bluesky, said that these paid features will not allow anyone to gain special treatment from Bluesky in any way, as is currently the case with X when someone purchases a blue checkmark for $8 per month.
Bluesky is operated by a core team of 20 people, supervisors, and support agents. Our biggest costs are the team and infrastructure. Wang wrote on Thursday: “Subscription revenues help us improve the application and grow the developer ecosystem, and give us time to explore business models beyond traditional advertising.”
The company is also looking to develop a payment system that allows content creators to earn money, despite scarce details on how that would work. Musk has been talking about adding an in-app payment system to X since he bought the site in late 2022, but he has not delivered on that promise yet.
Reactions to the news about content creators’ payments were mixed within Bluesky, with some people very concerned that offering these types of incentives could be a bad idea.
Kyle Orland, the senior games editor at Ars Technica, said: “If there’s anything that could ruin Bluesky, it’s the need to make money.”
The rise of Bluesky as an independent social media platform was a breath of fresh air for many people who had spent years posting on sites like Twitter. And not just because Elon Musk turned the site into a Nazi bar. People who grew up with a certain age of the internet saw social media sites come and go (remember MySpace and Friendster), and assumed that sites like Twitter and Facebook would meet the same fate, only to start the cycle anew when new offers came. But that’s not really how it turned out.
Instead, the past two decades have seen a lot of consolidation (Facebook bought Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014), as well as imitative services from the same monopoly companies (Facebook, now Meta, launched the Threads app in 2023). Paul Frazee from Bluesky is familiar with the old cycle and knows that the social media platform will not last forever. That’s why Frazee says the company has built its services with portability in mind.
Frazee responded on Thursday to a post (sorry, I can’t really name them spammers) from a person who loved Bluesky but encouraged content creators to direct their audience to their own website or newsletter, “so in 5 years when Bluesky is bad, that won’t happen” don’t take your entire audience with it!
“FWIW team Bluesky agrees. I hope it’s not within 5 years (I want at least 10 good years), but everyone knows the cycle. The company is the future’s adversary. “This is why we did this entirely, so that other apps can replace us if/when that happens,” Frazee posted.
Frazee linked to a series of explanations about how to make each user’s website the platform’s primary focus.
No one knows for sure whether Bluesky will be able to continue its rapid growth. But jumping from a million users in September 2023 to over 13 million today is a sign that social media users are at least looking for new alternatives to the dominance of big tech companies.
Bluesky said in its announcement on Thursday: “With every passing month, the need for an open social network becomes more apparent.” “We are extremely excited about the direction we are heading towards – we are not just building another social application, but building a complete network that gives users freedom and choice. Thank you for joining us.”
