Bluesky, the emerging social network, recently announced a major milestone, having surpassed 10 million users. This surge in popularity is attributed to the abrupt closure of Elon Musk-owned platform X in Brazil, which sent hordes of users looking for alternative social media.
In a celebratory post, Bluesky exclaimed, “If you’re reading this, you’re one of the first 10 million users on Bluesky!” The platform has added a fun feature for its users: clicking on the celebration emoji on the home page reveals the user’s joining number, perfect for sharing with friends.
The shutdown of X in Brazil came after the country’s top court banned the platform and imposed penalties for users attempting to access it via VPNs. This spurred rapid growth for Bluesky and Meta’s Threads, catapulting both into the top 10 of the App Store and Play Store social media rankings in Brazil.
Since the ban, Bluesky has seen a tremendous influx, adding 3 million users within just a few days. By the beginning of the month, the user base had swelled to over 9 million, with more than 85% of these new users hailing from Brazil.
However, this unprecedented growth didn’t come without challenges. Last week, the platform faced record activity levels, leading to some server issues as new users flocked to sign up.
Interestingly, Bluesky had maintained an invite-only model for nearly a year before opening its doors to all users this past February. In comparison, Meta-owned Threads has amassed over 200 million users.
Bluesky has also been innovating its platform by introducing new features. Users can now post videos, and new self-moderation tools allow control over who can quote posts, hide replies, and mute certain words for specified periods.
With these updates and a rapidly growing user base, Bluesky is poised to become a formidable player in the social media landscape.
