Even the mightiest challengers can fail in the ever-changing landscape of social media, and when they do, it's the nimble contenders that take the moment. Bluesky, the ambitious competitor to X (previously known as Twitter), suddenly found the spotlight courtesy of none other than the mysterious Elon Musk.
Consider this: September 18, 2023, will go down in digital history as a watershed moment. Elon Musk, the X empire's tech titan, stands in front of a live-streamed audience to announce a paradigm shift in the Twitterverse. To combat the "vast armies of bots" that had penetrated his domain, Musk said that X users would now have to pay a small monthly charge to access the site.
The reaction was fast, and the X fans were not pleased. They rushed to Twitter alternatives, with Bluesky being their preferred haven. Following Musk's membership declaration, Bluesky saw a striking ascent in new sign-ups, adding up to an outshining 53,585 newcomers toward the finish of Tuesday, September 19. This flood represented a critical 5% of Bluesky's general client base, which floats around 1.13 million records.
The analytics firm Similarweb corroborated these findings with a report that sheds light on Bluesky's meteoric rise. On the day Musk made his announcement, the Android app alone had half a million daily active users. The number of daily active users on Android increased by 20.6%, but an estimate for iOS users is still elusive.
Bluesky's web app received over 775,000 daily visitors, a 30% increase from the previous day. On September 19, the network passed the 1 million daily visitor mark, surpassing its previous high of 811,000 users on July 1, 2023. Another X-related dispute had erupted at the time when temporary rate limits were imposed on the number of tweets users could view.
Bluesky clearly thrives in the aftermath of X's setbacks, but not all Twitter alternatives do. When X experiences turbulence, competitors such as Instagram Threads and Mastodon do not appear to benefit in the same way. On September 18, Meta's new Twitter clone had 8.3 million daily active users, the same as the previous day. However, it is still far behind its peak usage, which occurred immediately after its inception.
What's noteworthy is Bluesky's unwillingness to seize these possibilities to grow its user base. Despite having just passed the one million user mark, Bluesky remains an invite-only site. One can only wonder how much more significant the increase in usage would have been had Bluesky opened its doors to all interested parties.
Not to mention that Elon Musk recently boasted about X's massive user base, which now stands at a mind-boggling 550 million monthly active users. With its 1 million users, Bluesky looks to be a tiny blip on the radar. As per data.ai, X has 135 million worldwide month-to-month dynamic users, while Mastodon uninhibitedly uncovered its month-to-month dynamic client figures, which currently stand at 1.7 million.
Regardless of being the biggest of the microblogging organizations, X seems, by all accounts, to be worried about its market position as the result of its rebranding. While trying to support its Application Store rankings, the business recently added "previously Twitter" to its Application Store portrayal. This change supplanted the past expression, "Blaze your glory," which did close to nothing to work on its standings.
The tides can change in an instant in the ever-changing realm of social media. Bluesky stands as a testament to the adage that it's not necessarily the size that matters but how you navigate the digital currents as X navigates the treacherous waters of rebranding. In a world where IT titans can falter, nimble competitors have their turn in the spotlight.
Read next: New Survey Says AI Implementation Sees A Surge In Investments With Positive Responses From Employees
Consider this: September 18, 2023, will go down in digital history as a watershed moment. Elon Musk, the X empire's tech titan, stands in front of a live-streamed audience to announce a paradigm shift in the Twitterverse. To combat the "vast armies of bots" that had penetrated his domain, Musk said that X users would now have to pay a small monthly charge to access the site.
The reaction was fast, and the X fans were not pleased. They rushed to Twitter alternatives, with Bluesky being their preferred haven. Following Musk's membership declaration, Bluesky saw a striking ascent in new sign-ups, adding up to an outshining 53,585 newcomers toward the finish of Tuesday, September 19. This flood represented a critical 5% of Bluesky's general client base, which floats around 1.13 million records.
The analytics firm Similarweb corroborated these findings with a report that sheds light on Bluesky's meteoric rise. On the day Musk made his announcement, the Android app alone had half a million daily active users. The number of daily active users on Android increased by 20.6%, but an estimate for iOS users is still elusive.
Bluesky's web app received over 775,000 daily visitors, a 30% increase from the previous day. On September 19, the network passed the 1 million daily visitor mark, surpassing its previous high of 811,000 users on July 1, 2023. Another X-related dispute had erupted at the time when temporary rate limits were imposed on the number of tweets users could view.
Bluesky clearly thrives in the aftermath of X's setbacks, but not all Twitter alternatives do. When X experiences turbulence, competitors such as Instagram Threads and Mastodon do not appear to benefit in the same way. On September 18, Meta's new Twitter clone had 8.3 million daily active users, the same as the previous day. However, it is still far behind its peak usage, which occurred immediately after its inception.
What's noteworthy is Bluesky's unwillingness to seize these possibilities to grow its user base. Despite having just passed the one million user mark, Bluesky remains an invite-only site. One can only wonder how much more significant the increase in usage would have been had Bluesky opened its doors to all interested parties.
Not to mention that Elon Musk recently boasted about X's massive user base, which now stands at a mind-boggling 550 million monthly active users. With its 1 million users, Bluesky looks to be a tiny blip on the radar. As per data.ai, X has 135 million worldwide month-to-month dynamic users, while Mastodon uninhibitedly uncovered its month-to-month dynamic client figures, which currently stand at 1.7 million.
Regardless of being the biggest of the microblogging organizations, X seems, by all accounts, to be worried about its market position as the result of its rebranding. While trying to support its Application Store rankings, the business recently added "previously Twitter" to its Application Store portrayal. This change supplanted the past expression, "Blaze your glory," which did close to nothing to work on its standings.
The tides can change in an instant in the ever-changing realm of social media. Bluesky stands as a testament to the adage that it's not necessarily the size that matters but how you navigate the digital currents as X navigates the treacherous waters of rebranding. In a world where IT titans can falter, nimble competitors have their turn in the spotlight.
Read next: New Survey Says AI Implementation Sees A Surge In Investments With Positive Responses From Employees
