When Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey tasked the social media platform’s internal team with developing an open and decentralized protocol in 2019, he envisioned a reboot of sorts. Dorsey looked forward to the company’s early days, saying social media incentives drove the platform to focus on ” [spark] Controversy and outrage.
Five years later, that vision is taking shape in Bluesky, a social media platform born out of Twitter (now Elon Musk’s X). Bluesky became an independent company in 2021 and has amassed millions of users since opening to the public earlier this year.
Supporters of decentralization say that as social media moves toward a more fragmented future, the time may finally be ripe for open platforms.
“Centralized organizations can’t meet the needs of diverse communities,” Bluesky chief operating officer Rose Wang told Yahoo Finance. “That’s why I think users feel like they’re being left behind.”
Bluesky’s more than 24 million users represent only a small portion of X’s estimated user base, but the platform saw significant growth after President-elect Donald Trump won the election.
Last month, Bluesky remained at the top of Apple’s App Store, with the app’s daily downloads even exceeding X at one point.
Bluesky’s platform is built on the “AT Protocol”, a decentralized open source technology that allows users to control their online experience.
Unlike Meta’s (META) suite of apps or Google’s (GOOG) YouTube, where the company holds the key to the algorithms and determines the experience on the platform, decentralized platforms allow users to shape their experience themselves, including content moderation.
“It reminds me of the promise of the early web, that everyone was a publisher of their own content — very equal,” said Damian Rollison, director of market insights at marketing platform SOCi.
The company’s ambitions extend beyond social media. Rather than limiting users to a single platform, it is designed to allow users to seamlessly transfer identities between platforms.
“The idea is that you can put Reddit, Facebook, dating apps, Goodreads, anything on top of our protocol,” Wang said. “Why would you do that? Because then your identity, your information is actually It’s possible to move from one platform to another and you’re not locked into these walled gardens. You own your identity on Bluesky rather than letting the platform own your identity.
This November 24, 2024 photo illustration shows the Bluesky app logo displayed on a smartphone with the Bluesky icon and an X visible in the background. ·NurPhoto from Getty Images
Shannon McGregor, an associate professor at the University of North Carolina’s Hussman School of Journalism and Media, said there is a growing push for more decentralized control of online experiences.
A recent Ipsos survey analyzed the role of digital platforms in eight countries and found that users have a negative view of social media and are increasingly opting for “platform ambivalence”, turning to multiple news and information channels.
“Wrapped in [the migration to alternative platforms] It’s the desire to be in a space that’s not controlled by a single billionaire,” McGregor said. “I think people don’t want to be influenced by the whims of big corporations and individual personalities.”
Bluesky isn’t the first company working to change the social media landscape. Some companies are trying to reinvent the online experience.
Mastodon has recently positioned itself as a Twitter alternative after Musk acquired the company in 2022.
Trump himself founded Truth Social (DJT) after his Facebook and Twitter accounts were suspended following the January 6 insurrection.
But none of these platforms have attracted a large enough user base to compete with X or Meta’s apps.
While Bluesky currently claims to have more than 24 million users, that number pales in comparison to Meta Threads’ 275 million monthly active users.
“Meta has spent a lot of money acquiring competitors for a long time,” McGregor said. “So even though people may have gone elsewhere, [Meta] Purchased these places and incorporated them into their own suite of applications. Some business practices make alternatives impossible.
There are signs that things may be changing. Under the Biden administration, the Justice Department has filed lawsuits against Apple (AAPL), Amazon (AMZN) and Alphabet in an effort to curb what it considers anticompetitive behavior in the technology industry.
The Trump administration is unlikely to relax its focus on big tech companies.
Incoming federal communications chairman Brendan Carr said in a letter that the agency plans to take “broad action” against big tech companies, including a review of Section 230, the law that protects companies from their Responsibility for Third Party Content on the Platform.
Rolison said all of this points to the potential for decentralized platforms like Bluesky to finally take hold.
“There will be platforms that meet a variety of needs and adhere to a variety of people’s goals and values,” Rolison said. “A calcification of services centered on a few very large platforms may not serve consumers well.” Long term service. I think we’re starting to see that split.
Akiko Fujita is an anchor and reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on X @ Fujita Akiko.
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