Jack Dorsey’s Twitter rival app Bluesky sees spike in downloads
Christopher Hutton
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A decentralized Twitter clone launched by the company’s founder is getting steam. It could be a significant competitor for Twitter as new owner Elon Musk prepares to bring on a new CEO.
Bluesky, a social app launched by Jack Dorsey, has seen its popularity surge in recent months.
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Bluesky saw 628,000 mobile downloads in April, according to data analytics firm Sensor Tower, a 606% rise in downloads compared to its launch in March. In contrast, Twitter only had 14.9 million downloads in April, a 2% growth rate.
The app is nowhere near comparable to Twitter. But the download rate suggests it could pose a competitive threat if its growth continues.
Bluesky is a project founded by Dorsey in 2019. Initially founded as a side project at Twitter, the CEO spun it into its own company to create a “decentralized” platform.
The website’s design resembles Twitter and allows users to post short updates to a timeline. It lacks certain features, such as hashtags or direct messages.
Bluesky is invite-only. If a user wants to make a Bluesky account, they must receive an invite code from an already approved user.
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A number of apps have been launched in recent years to compete with Twitter, but none have broken through. Mastodon, a similarly decentralized community platform, saw a similar surge in interest around the time that Musk announced plans to buy Twitter but has not seriously threatened Twitter. Conservatives also tried to make their own Twitter alternatives out of worry about censorship. GETTR, Parler, and Gab all saw initial surges of interest when launched but failed to maintain it on the threat of censorship alone.
The app’s download surge coincides with Musk appointing former NBCUniversal CEO Linda Yaccarino as the company’s new CEO. The company stripped away legacy blue check marks last month to promote its premium service Twitter Blue. The company’s ad revenue is also taking a long time to recover after dropping following Musk’s acquisition.