Bluesky invites become a hot commodity as demand for Twitter alternative outpaces access

Consumer Demand for Jack Dorsey Endorsement Twitter Alternative Bluesky is outpacing access, according to the latest App Store facts and figures released by the company today. in a new Frequently asked questions on the Bluesky website, the company shares that its community has exceeded 50,000 users. However, estimates provided to TechCrunch by the application intelligence company data.ai indicate that the decentralized clone of Twitter has seen more than 375,000 installs worldwide on iOS as of April 26, 2023, and has ranked at the top of the download charts of Apple and Google app stores.

Excitement for Bluesky has also increased in recent weeks, thanks to a combination of exclusivity (the app still requires a hard-to-find invite to enter) and the culture its community is creating. The latter has seen the application adopt what has been described as “early Twitter energythanks in part to the numerous meme accounts and shit post. This results in a kind of hectic and chaotic environment on Bluesky that is attracting many former Twitter users and in particular those who have not fit in well with the more serious and structured environment found on the Internet. other decentralized twitter alternative, Mastodon.

But at the moment, Bluesky isn’t capitalizing on the huge consumer demand for its app.

While other potential Twitter alternatives like Mail and T2 have expanded access to their respective networks, Bluesky invitations have become such a popular commodity that they have been selling for between $120 and $400 on eBay in recent days.

Some sellers are now even testing the market for higher prices, as demand for Bluesky increases.

(Top: Invitations sold. Bottom: Bluesky invitations on sale starting May 2, 2023.)

Consumer interest in the app has also been driving its rise on top app store listings, data.ai analysis indicates.

The company found that Bluesky garnered more than 375,000 iOS downloads worldwide, peaking on April 15 with 66,000 downloads in a single day by becoming the #1 app across all categories in Thailand. Prior to that, the highest level of daily iOS downloads was over 22,000 on March 22, 2023.

This 375,000 figure is higher than the 240,000 iOS installations Bluesky had as of April 20, 135,000 of which arrived that same month, data.ai had recently done. reported.

Data display by miranda Halperncreated with To flourish

The application released on Google Play at the end of April, therefore, insights about its traction on Android devices are still awaited.

But the analysis indicates that, despite the lack of consumer access to the new social network, Bluesky has managed to position itself in the download charts in both the Apple App Store and Google Play in several markets.

In Japan, for example, Bluesky peaked at No. 3 among social apps on Google Play for downloads on April 24 after previously reaching No. 8 among social apps on iOS on March 4.

In the United Kingdom, the app ranked number 10 among social apps by downloads on Google Play on April 26, shortly after peaking at number 10 among social apps by downloads on iOS on April 23.

Meanwhile, the United States has been responsible for much of Bluesky’s latest growth, the firm said. That helped push the app to No. 22 among social apps by downloads on Google Play on April 26 and to No. 11 among social apps by downloads on iOS on April 24.

Due to its relative newness, data.ai said it cannot yet accurately predict the number of daily or monthly active users at this time.

The ratings are impressive not only because the app is still fresh out, but because its community is still quite small.

For a few days, Bluesky accounts That goal of following all app users was following north of 45,000 people. However, according to the FAQ posted by Bluesky today, the company says the community now has more than 50,000 users.

The FAQ also attempts to clarify how access to invite codes will be distributed, noting that existing users receive only one invite every two weeks they are in the app. Furthermore, the company shared that it regularly monitors the social graph and if it finds that certain users are inviting “other trusted participants”, they will receive more invites.

This aspect of the invitation system makes Bluesky feel even more exclusive than if it were just slowly rolling out access to its waiting list. Instead, getting in now feels like a function of who you know. This has led to existing Bluesky users being asked daily, often by multiple people, if they have any invitation codes to spare. (In other words, your best bet for getting a Bluesky invite is to become best friends with an existing user within the next two weeks.)

Bluesky says he’s limiting access to grow the network “organically,” but if that were the case, he’d implement some more code or increase the frequency to capitalize on real-world demand, because that would still be considered organic. growth. At this point, restricting invites to one every two weeks is artificially slowing down the growth of the app.

That seems to be by design. The company explains its thinking in the FAQ, saying it needs to limit bad actors early on.

“Social networks can be abused by spammers and bad actors who want to manipulate the public conversation. It is much easier to limit registrations and let them spread through an existing social graph than to try to retroactively clean up rampant abuse from the network,” the post reads. “In the long term, we see this invite code system as one part of the open source tools we’re building to help server administrators (people who run services) help curate and moderate their communities,” he says.

It’s unclear if the company believes its existing user base can’t be trusted to give out invites responsibly, or if it wants to have more influence over who gets in and who stays out. But with Bluesky’s invitations now being sold to the highest bidder on eBay, the company’s plans to keep the bad guys out could be disrupted.

The FAQs detail other aspects of Bluesky’s plans, including their AT protocol for decentralization and its differentiators from Twitter, such as algorithmic choice and composable restraint.

It also tries to clarify the nature of Bluesky’s relationship with Twitter, as it was originally incubated at Twitter while Jack Dorsey was CEO. it was later rotated like an independent company (a PBLLC), which has received $13 million on Twitter to push for its launch. Now, the FAQ points out that “Twitter closed its service agreement with Bluesky in 2022.” jack dorsey is still on the bluesky board.

Bluesky was asked to comment on the new numbers, but an automated response to press inquiries only pointed us to the new frequently asked questions.