Bluesky receives money from blockchain fund and announces premium functions
Bluesky is riding a wave of success among short messaging services. Now those responsible have explained how they want to finance themselves in future.
(Image: Diego Thomazini/Shutterstock.com)
The short messaging service Bluesky has raised 15 million US dollars in an investment round and then announced that it intends to earn money with paid premium functions in future. The investments now come from Blockchain Capital, among others, and the venture capital fund with a focus on cryptocurrency projects will also appoint a representative to Bluesky's board of directors. Nevertheless, the company assures that its own short messaging service uses neither blockchains nor cryptocurrency and that no "hyperfinancing" is planned.
Differentiation from X
Instead, money is to be raised via a subscription that requires payment for higher video quality and greater customizability of the profile page. However, Bluesky itself will always remain free of charge. The "Bluesky team" also promises that accounts will never be given preferential treatment when filling the algorithmic timelines simply because they have been paid for. This sets Bluesky apart from X (formerly Twitter), where this is now the case under the aegis of Elon Musk.
Bluesky is also planning a way for users to voluntarily support others financially. However, there is not yet any more information on this. Finally, those responsible for the network also point out that Bluesky and the underlying ATProtocol make it possible to develop completely different applications. For example, there are already some for organizing events, a web forum and an audio app. The planned monetization functions could help such services to grow in the future.
Alongside Threads by Meta and Mastodon, Bluesky is currently one of the most important Twitter alternatives and has recently benefited particularly strongly from the drop-off in Elon Musk's short message service. According to its own figures, Bluesky now has 13 million users, and just a few days ago hundreds of thousands more switched following the introduction of new terms of use at X. For some months now, Bluesky accounts have also been able to connect with those on Mastodon, and Threads could be added at some point.
(mho)