It’s been two months since Mark Zuckerberg launched Threads, his so-called ‘Twitter killer’ app, which was joined by more than 100 million users in less than five days before falling in popularity.
But now it looks like another rival app, Bluesky, could be the one X owner Elon Musk should keep an eye on, after the platform racked up a record wave of signups in the wake of the billionaire’s threat to start charging the users of your own social networking site. .
The figures, collected by BlueskyStatisticssuggest that more than 53,500 users flocked to their app over the past 24 hours, about 40,000 above average.
However, the site’s total number of users – estimated at around 1.1 million – still pales in comparison to X, formerly known as Twitter.
Musk revealed that his social media giant currently has around 550 million monthly users despite having undergone a series of drastic changes since its acquisition last year. including the monetizing your blue tick verification system.
Thriving: Social media site Bluesky has racked up a record wave of subscriptions in the wake of Elon Musk’s threat to start charging users of X, formerly known as Twitter.
Confident: However, Musk revealed that his social media giant currently has around 550 million monthly users despite having undergone a series of drastic changes since its acquisition last year.
There was more controversy and uproar yesterday, when the tech billionaire revealed that he was considering charging all users to access the platform in a bid to protect himself from bots or automated accounts.
ESET cybersecurity expert Jake Moore told MailOnline that Bluesky’s growing popularity was “inevitable” and “predictable”.
‘Given that it has been proposed that users could be charged for using [X]the inevitable and quite predictable has happened with record registrations on the Twitter/X alternative,” he said.
‘The battle of the next Twitter has already begun with some in the ring like Threads and Mastadon too.
“However, the real test of time will be to see which platform wins the most users to take on the next generation of social media users.”
Bluesky, which launched on both Android and iOS earlier this year, is backed by Twitter co-founder and former CEO Jake Dorsey.
It is a rare example of an invite-only social media app, where pre-existing users can hand out invite codes to anyone interested in joining.
A waiting list is also available for those who don’t know anyone on Bluesky, with generated codes sent via email.
Moore added: ‘Bluesky offers a registration process to anyone with an invitation code generated by those already on the platform.
“This little feature cleverly keeps bots at bay as they struggle to automate mass registrations, which can cause security and misinformation issues.”
The invite-only component also differentiates Bluesky from X, as misinformation and bots have been a big concern for Musk in recent months.
Threat: New figures suggest more than 53,500 users flocked to Bluesky yesterday alone
This was revealed yesterday in a conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, when the technology entrepreneur announced his plans for future positions.
“I would say the biggest reason we’re moving toward a small monthly payment for the use of System X is that it’s the only way I can think of to combat large armies of robots,” Musk said.
‘A bot costs a fraction of a cent, but if someone has to pay a few dollars or something… you have to get a new payment method every time you have a new bot.
‘By prioritizing posts written by X premium subscribers, we’re actually going to propose a lower tier price. We want it to be a small amount of money.
‘It’s a longer discussion, but in my opinion this is the only defense against large armies of robots. As AI gets really good, it passes captcha tests better than humans.
While Bluesky users can share images and follow accounts, they can’t send direct messages or post videos like X users.
Meanwhile, Zuckerberg is looking to introduce direct messaging to Threads in the not-too-distant future.
Threads’ popularity also skyrocketed after its launch on July 6, amassing more than 100 million users by the fifth day.
But last month’s data suggests that this initial popularity has since waned somewhat. Analysts at Global Wireless Solutions (GWS) say daily users fell to just 430,000 in the UK.
However, following Musk’s latest comments about charging X users, Moore believes Threads could make a big comeback.
“Bots have been a problem on the platform from the beginning, but when Musk laid off a large number of employees, including security personnel, the problem reached quite uncontrollable extremes,” he added.
‘Requiring payment from all users might mitigate this problem, but you could have a bigger problem on your hands with a mass exodus of users.
“With many similar alternatives already established, such as Threads and Mastadon, this could be the final push for some users to switch to the competition.”
MailOnline has approached X for comment.
