Social networking startup Bluesky has seen a significant increase in its user base, adding over 2 million new users in the past four days, a sharp rise from the 500,000 reported on Friday, mainly due to X’s shutdown in Brazil
Bluesky engineers were compelled to maintain the stability of the servers in response to the influx of new signups, which resulted in the occasional error message indicating that there were”Not Enough Resources” to process requests.
This rapid growth caused some users to encounter the error.
Over the weekend, Bluesky became the top-ranked app in Brazil, surpassing Instagram Threads, Meta’s X competitor.
This was because new users downloaded the app. Bluesky’s total downloads increased by 10,584% this weekend compared to the previous weekend, and its downloads in Brazil increased by an impressive 1,018,952%, according to app intelligence firm Appfigures.
The firm observed that the growth appears to have a cascading effect, as downloads outside Brazil also increased by 584%. This is partially attributable to the fact that Bluesky has received downloads in 22 countries where it had previously experienced minimal activity.
The United States, Portugal, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Spain were the countries that experienced the highest number of installations outside of Brazil in terms of absolute downloads.
However, Portugal, Chile, Argentina, Colombia, and Romania experienced the most excellent rates of download growth. Most of the latter group experienced a significant increase in growth, transitioning from single-digit growth to growth in the thousands.
Bluesky’s newcomers have also been actively engaged on the platform, which has increased other vital metrics.
According to a Bluesky engineer, the number of likes on the social network increased from 13 million to 104.6 million in the past four days, a significant increase from the 13 million recorded during a comparable period one week prior.
Additionally, the number of followers increased from 1.4 million to 100.8 million, and the number of reposts rose from 1.3 million to 11 million.
Bluesky reported that it had acquired 2.11 million users over the past four days, a significant increase from the 26,000 users it acquired in the previous week. This information was reported on Monday.
Furthermore, the organization disclosed that it had experienced”a daily active user increase of over 100%”
Bluesky informed TechCrunch on Tuesday that the figure has reached 2.4 million and is increasing” by the minute”
Bluesky’s appeal to those compelled to abandon X may be attributed to the app’s user experience, now owned by Elon Musk and previously known as Twitter.
Initially incubated within Twitter, Bluesky was separated as a distinct entity and secured its funding. However, it continues to exhibit a significant degree of Twitter’s aesthetic and functional characteristics.
Bluesky, like X, provides various features, including likes, reposts, quote posts, lists, direct messages, search tools, and user profiles. However, it also enhances X’s capacities in other ways.
Users can establish their instances (servers that run Bluesky and connect to others over the AT Protocol) as a decentralized social network.
They can also customize their feeds, subscribe to third-party moderation services, and create and share””starter pack”” that link to curated sets of recommended users to follow.
According to the company, Bluesky intends to incorporate video support in an upcoming update.
Another factor to consider is how Bluesky’s approach to content and moderation differs from that of Threads.
“X has long been recognized as a hub for political debates and breaking news, even when it was known as Twitter.” Threads has adopted the opposite stance, stating that it will not automatically recommend political content on its platform.
Conversely, Threads seeks to establish itself as an appealing platform for influencers and brands like Instagram, with the ultimate goal of generating revenue through advertisements.
Some Brazilians who opted for Bluesky were probably seeking to join a network that was not centralized and as easily controlled as X’s prohibition in Brazil is linked to politics and the country’s desire to regulate the content that could be posted on the platform.
The site’s proprietors are responsible for moderation decisions on platforms like X, whereas users control decentralized networks.
In conjunction with its adaptability, Bluesky’s user-friendliness may render the network more appealing than others.
For example, Brazil’s recent user growth was significantly smaller than Mastodon’s decentralized network.
Eugen Rochko, the founder and CEO of Mastodon, announced on Saturday that the service had received 4,200 signups from Brazil, a significant increase from the 152 signups on August 28.
That may indicate that Brazilians desire more than just decentralization; signups want a location reminiscent of Twitter/X.
Meta hssignupset provided an update on the extent of the increase in Threads that has influenced departure from X.
However, with a network that boasts over 200 million monthly active users, even adding thousands or millions of users would not be as significant as the much smaller Bluesky.
Nevertheless, it is also conceivable that Brazilians desired to relocate to a location distinct from their friends, family, and creators, an area that prioritized public postings and resembled Twitter of the past.
Bluesky’s culture reflects the chaotic energy of an early Twitter, characterized by s***posting and parodies.
It is estimated that X has over 20 million consumers in Brazil, indicating ample opportunity for growth in all directions.
