When he started the Twitter partnership, when Jack Dorsey tasked the internal team on the social media platform with creating an open and unique protocol in 2019, he envisioned a rebirth of sorts. Dorsey longed for the company’s early days, saying the influence of social media had driven platforms to focus on “content and conversation [spark] strife and anger.”
Five years later, this vision is taking shape with Bluesky, the social media platform born from Twitter (now called X under the ownership of Elon Musk). Bluesky, which became a private company in 2021, has amassed millions of users since it opened to the public earlier this year.
Proponents of decentralization say the time may finally be right for open platforms as social media moves toward a decentralized future.
“Central organizations cannot help different communities,” Bluesky COO Rose Wang told Yahoo Finance. “That’s why I think the users felt like they were left out.”
Bluesky has more than 24 million users representing the X segment of the estimated user base, but the platform has seen significant growth following the victory of President-elect Donald Trump.
Last month, Bluesky remained near the top of Apple’s App Store, and the daily downloads of the app even pushed past that of X.
Bluesky’s platform is built on top of the “AT Protocol,” a unique, open-source technology that allows users to control their online activities.
Unlike Meta’s ( META ) suite of apps or Google’s ( GOOG ) YouTube, where the company holds the keys to the algorithm and dictates the platform’s activity, decentralized platforms allow users to customize their experiences, including content monitoring.
“It reminds me of the promise of the early internet, where everyone is a publisher of their own content – equally,” said Damian Rollison, director of market visualization at the SOCi platform.
The company’s interests extend beyond social media. Instead of locking users to a single platform, it aims to allow users to transfer their credentials seamlessly from platform to platform.
“The idea is that you can put Reddit, Facebook, dating apps, Goodreads, anything on top of our protocol,” Wang said. “Why do you want to do that? Because then your identity, your data can move from platform to platform, and you are not locked in these walled gardens. You are your identity on Bluesky versus having platforms that are yours.”
The Bluesky app logo is displayed on a smartphone with the Bluesky icon and X seen in the background in this photo taken on Nov. 24, 2024. (Jonathan Raa/NurPhoto via Getty Images) ·NurPhoto via Getty Images
According to Shannon McGregor, an associate professor at the University of North Carolina’s Hussman School of Journalism and Media, the push for increased distribution of control of online events is increasing.
A recent study by Ipsos examining the role of digital platforms in eight countries found that users have a negative view of media and are increasingly choosing “platform ambivalence,” turning to more media and information sources.
“Being wrapped in [the migration to alternative platforms] the desire to be in a place that is not controlled by one billionaire,” said McGregor. “I think people have a desire not to do what the big companies want, but also the same number.”
Bluesky is not the first in its quest to shake up the social media landscape. A few companies have tried to recover online information.
Mastodon recently established itself as an alternative to Twitter following Musk’s takeover of the company in 2022. And right-wing platforms like Parler and Gab have become popular alternatives to social media.
Trump himself started Social Truth (DJT) after his Facebook and Twitter accounts were suspended after the January 6 uprising.
But none of these platforms have attracted a large enough user base to compete with X or Meta’s apps.
While Bluesky currently claims more than 24 million users, that number pales in comparison to the 275 million monthly active users on Meta’s Threads.
“For a long time, Meta spent a lot of money to buy some of its competitors,” said McGregor. “So even though there are other places where people could have gone, [Meta] they bought those sites, put them in their suite of apps. There have been business practices that have made other options impossible.”
There are symptoms that can change. Under the Biden administration, the Justice Department has brought cases against Apple ( AAPL ), Amazon ( AMZN ), and Alphabet to rein in what it sees as anti-competitive behavior in the technology sector.
And the Trump administration can’t stop Big Tech.
Incoming Federal Communications Chairman Brendan Carr indicated the agency plans to take “severe actions” against large technology firms, including an investigation of Section 230, a law that protects companies from liability for third-party content on the platform, in a letter he wrote. last month.
Rollison said all of this shows the potential for a unique platform launch like Bluesky to finally catch on.
“There will be platforms that serve a variety of needs and cater to a variety of people’s goals and behaviors,” Rollison said. term. I think we are starting to see this collapse. “
Akiko Fujita is an anchor and reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow him on X @AkikoFujita.
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