X-Alternative Bluesky now with four million users
The short messaging service Bluesky, an alternative to Elon Musk's Twitter successor X, gained around 850,000 new users on its first day with free access.
Bluesky had previously restricted the influx of new users, but since Tuesday anyone can sign up without an invitation code. With this growth, the four million mark has been broken, as the service announced on Wednesday.
The service is designed as a decentralized alternative to X - a platform on which many interconnected online networks can exist. The project was launched in 2019 by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey when he was still head of the best-known short messaging service.
Strongest X competitor so far Threads
Following the Twitter takeover by controversial tech billionaire Elon Musk, interest in alternatives increased. The entrepreneur represents positions of the US right and also caused a shift to the right on the platform, which has since been renamed X.
The strongest competition to date has been established by the rival service Threads from the Facebook group Meta with 130 million monthly active users. Twitter and X have not provided any regular information on user numbers since the takeover. The company's CEO Linda Yaccarino, who was appointed by Musk, merely wrote in a blog post at the end of October: "More than half a billion of the world's most informed and influential people join X every month." (SDA/swi)
