What is Bluesky, Twitter's new competitor pushed by Jack Dorsey?

Decentralised social network gaining attention, with Twitter power users flocking to platform

Jack Dorsey, former chief executive of Twitter, is behind a new Twitter competitor called Bluesky. AFP

Jack Dorsey is taking another whack at a Twitter-like service with a new social media platform called Bluesky.

The service is gaining traction among Twitter power users, attracting prominent personalities including US Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Bluesky, which bears similarities to the blue bird platform, is the latest in a long list of apps that are looking to steal Twitter's thunder after Elon Musk's chaotic takeover of the company.

What is Bluesky?

It is a text-focused social media service launched for select users in February. Users can post short messages of up to 300 characters as well as pictures.

There is no support for videos and direct messages so far.

Bluesky runs on a decentralised framework, similar to social network Mastodon. It allows users to build independent social media experiences and users can join a specific “server”, which has its own unique set of rules, interests and participants.

How does it compare to Twitter?

Bluesky offers a similar experience to Twitter — people create profiles and post short messages with text and images.

On the timeline, Bluesky has “What's hot” and “Following” feed, similar to the curated “For You” and the chronological “Following” feeds on Twitter.

Unlike Twitter, Bluesky's core framework allows for various customisations.

“Instead of one site running the network, you can have many sites. It means you get a choice of provider, and individuals and businesses can self-host if they want,” the company said in a blog post in October.

Who is behind Bluesky?

It was started by Mr Dorsey as a project within Twitter in 2019 and was set up as an independent company in 2022. As of April 2022, it had raised $13 million from Twitter.

Mr Dorsey, Jeremie Miller, the inventor of communication protocol Jabber/XMPP, and Jay Graber, chief executive of Bluesky, are its board members.

Is Bluesky taking on Twitter?

It is too soon to say. The company told Bloomberg News it had more than 40,000 users.

The company began to sign up users on the wait-list early this year and announced its biggest single-day jump last week.

While its user base is still small, Bluesky has attracted many power users including writer and comedian Dril, following frustrations with Mr Musk's management of Twitter and the recent changes to the platform.