Bluesky reveals plans to introduce paid tier with exclusive features
Bluesky, the decentralized social app developed by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, has gained a lot of new users following Elon Musk’s announcement that the “block” feature will be replaced with a “light” version.
In fact, Bluesky recently announced it has exceeded 13 million users and that it continues to grow. The company also revealed that it has raised a $15 million financing led by Blockchain Capital with participation from Alumni Ventures, True Ventures, SevenX, Amir Shevat of Dark mode, co-creator of Kubernetes Joe Beda, and others.
Despite Blockchain Capital being its lead, Bluesky says that its app and the AT Protocol do not use blockchains or cryptocurrency, and will not “hyperfinancialize” the social experience through tokens, crypto trading, NFTs, etc.
However, the social app announced it will begin developing a subscription model for features like higher quality video uploads or profile customizations like colors and avatar frames. Unlike Twitter, Bluesky says it will never uprank accounts because they’re subscribed to a paid tier, so that won’t be something that you can pay for.
According to Bluesky, its monetization strategy that includes the addition of a paid tier, domain-name registration, and payments to creators will help apps like Smoke Signal, Frontpage, and Bluecast grow.
These apps exist within the same AT Protocol ecosystem, and have been designed by other developers with totally different purposes from the Bluesky app. This seems like an attempt to build an entire network rather than a single social app.
Hopefully, Bluesky’s philosophy that “technology should serve the user, not the reverse” will translate into a solid monetization strategy that will not alienate the social app’s users.
In fact, Bluesky recently announced it has exceeded 13 million users and that it continues to grow. The company also revealed that it has raised a $15 million financing led by Blockchain Capital with participation from Alumni Ventures, True Ventures, SevenX, Amir Shevat of Dark mode, co-creator of Kubernetes Joe Beda, and others.
However, the social app announced it will begin developing a subscription model for features like higher quality video uploads or profile customizations like colors and avatar frames. Unlike Twitter, Bluesky says it will never uprank accounts because they’re subscribed to a paid tier, so that won’t be something that you can pay for.
Besides that, Bluesky announced plans to establish a voluntary monetization option for its community of creators, including artists, writers, developers, and more. Part of this plan includes building a payment service for people to support their favorite creators and projects, which seems like a good approach.
According to Bluesky, its monetization strategy that includes the addition of a paid tier, domain-name registration, and payments to creators will help apps like Smoke Signal, Frontpage, and Bluecast grow.
These apps exist within the same AT Protocol ecosystem, and have been designed by other developers with totally different purposes from the Bluesky app. This seems like an attempt to build an entire network rather than a single social app.
Hopefully, Bluesky’s philosophy that “technology should serve the user, not the reverse” will translate into a solid monetization strategy that will not alienate the social app’s users.
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