In this photo illustration, the Bluesky Social logo is shown on a mobile phone in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on September 4, 2024.
Mauro Pimentel | AFP | Getty Images
Weibo startup Bluesky gained more than 1.25 million new users in the past week, a sign that some social media users are changing their habits after the U.S. presidential election.
Bluesky’s influx of users highlights how the app has been able to position itself as an alternative to Elon Musk’s rival Yuan thread. The company said on Wednesday that most of the new users came from the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.
“We’re excited to welcome everyone looking for a better social media experience,” Bluesky CEO Jay Graber told CNBC in a statement.
Despite the surge in users, Bluesky’s total base is still a fraction of its competitors. The Seattle startup claims to have 15.2 million users. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg October It said Threads has nearly 275 million monthly users. May Musk claim X has 600 million monthly users, but market intelligence firm Sensor Tower estimated in October that X had 318 million monthly users.
“Journalists, politicians and news junkies have also been talking about Bluesky as a better X alternative than Threads,” said web traffic and monitoring service Sametimeweb. Tuesday’s Blog.
Some users with new Bluesky accounts said they had switched to the service because of Musk and his support for President-elect Donald Trump.
“It’s shocking that Elon Musk has turned Twitter into a propaganda machine for Trump, filled with disinformation and misinformation,” one user said. release On the blue sky.
This is the second time Bluesky has seen significant growth in the past few months.
Bluesky said it added 2 million new users in September after Brazil’s Supreme Court suspended X’s services in the country for failing to comply with regional content moderation policies and appoint local representatives.
