Bluesky Now Has 24 Million Users. Jay Graber Is Still Vowing to Keep It From Enshittification
www.wired.com
At WIRED's The Big Interview event, Bluesky CEO Jay Graber discussed the booming user numbers for the Twitter rival and why giving social media users more control is a recipe for success.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/20853350

Bluesky has seen massive growth in the weeks following the US election. As of Tuesday, there are 24 million users on the social media platform. With great engagement comes great responsibility, which means Bluesky CEO Jay Graber has to do a lot to keep her promise to not “enshittify” the platform with ads while still funding its explosive growth.

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Enshittification, as its known, generally comes as social media platforms expand and need to squeeze money out of users in order to please investors and keep the lights on. Since Bluesky doesn’t plan to run ads, WIRED senior writer Kate Knibbs asked, how does Bluesky plan to make money? “Subscriptions are the first step,” Graber said, referring to a plan to have users pay a regular fee for the ability to upload higher-quality video, for example, or access certain customization features.

  • De_Narm@lemmy.world
    172·
    11 days ago

    Of course she’s gonna say that, it’s the easiest way to get new users right now. And, of course, Bluesky will be enshitified. It’s inevitable for every service trying to make money.

    • greenskye@lemm.ee
      116·
      11 days ago

      Honestly disagree. I think it’s important to distinguish between companies who make a product or offer a service and charge appropriately for that transaction. Commerce isn’t an inherent evil.

      Enshittification is inevitable when the customers are no longer the primary method to make money for the executives. That’s the perverse incentive that results in actively sabotaging your own business for greater short term profits because you’ve created a system that doesn’t punish you for doing so (typically by running every ‘real’ competitor into the ground first).

      If they are more concerned about stock price, or advertisers or selling data, those are the avenues to enshittification. But selling a service to end users for profit is just normal business.

        • greenskye@lemm.ee
          6·
          11 days ago

          I was responding to this specific statement

          It’s [enshittification is] inevitable for every service trying to make money.

          • actually@lemmy.world
            2·
            11 days ago

            Ok I get it, I think you are correct and also convinced blue sky must enshittify eventually, but may be years from now