Twitter faced a bunch of rivals, and Bluesky was one of them, hoping to outshine the social media giant. Bluesky aimed to be a more open and liberal-friendly platform.
However, Bluesky stumbled early on by keeping its platform private during a time when there was a lot of buzz around it. They made people wait and needed an invite to join, which didn’t sit well with many, including myself. The exclusivity gave off an unwelcoming vibe, and I wasn’t keen on joining a seemingly secretive social app.
Despite the initial hurdles, Bluesky managed to attract over three million users, although the growth slowed down over time. To regain momentum and appeal to a broader audience, Bluesky decided to ditch the waitlist and invite system, opening up the platform to everyone.
In a blog post, the Bluesky team explained the change: “For the past year, we used invite codes to help us manage growth while we built features like moderation tooling, custom feeds, and more. Now, we’re ready for anyone to join.”
This strategic move seems to be paying off, with almost 800,000 new users signing up on the first day of open registration. The sustainability of this influx remains uncertain, given the tough competition from platforms like X and Meta-owned Threads.
Bluesky does have a unique advantage over its competitors, though – its main supporter is Jack Dorsey, the visionary behind Twitter’s success. The coming months will reveal how Bluesky fares in the evolving landscape of social media.
