US election: Bluesky gains over a million members as users flee Elon Musk’s X

Donald Trump’s US election victory – and billionaire Elon Musk’s role in helping to get him elected – has sent many users of Musk’s social networking service X, formerly known as Twitter, leaving for alternatives.

One of the key beneficiaries of the exodus has been Bluesky, which rocketed to the No. 1 spot on the Apple App Store’s US chart this week.

Bluesky’s user base has doubled in the past 90 days.

On Nov 13, the company said it had gained one million new sign-ups in the past week alone, bringing it to more than 15 million total users.

Bluesky is a social media service with a lot of the same features you might find on X, Facebook and Instagram. Users can create a profile, follow other accounts, like and re-share posts, and send private messages.

Bluesky users have the option to see several different feeds based on their interests. They can see traditional feeds made up of posts from the people they choose to follow, for example, or scroll through feeds focused on certain topics, such as science, gardening or “cat pics”.

Bluesky has more 15 million total users and has added more than 1.25 million new sign-ups since the US election on Nov 5.

It is still relatively small compared with competitors such as X and Meta’s Threads, but it is growing quickly.

Bluesky had only 10 million total users in September. One week after the election, it was the top ranked “free” app on Apple’s App Store.

Bluesky started as more of a project than a company.

In late 2019, then Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey announced Bluesky, which was funded by Twitter, as an independent effort to build a new social networking protocol.

Mr Dorsey did not like that the major social networks – including his own – were all owned and controlled by private companies.

A social networking protocol, by contrast, would serve as a technology layer that anyone could build a network on top of, theoretically creating more competition and user freedom.

E-mail is an example of an internet protocol – anyone can make an e-mail service, and send e-mails that can be received by people who use other providers.

That project morphed into a formal company called Bluesky in 2021.

Mr Dorsey left the Bluesky board in 2023. He has since criticised Bluesky for becoming a more traditional company instead of just creating a technology protocol.

Twitter stopped financing Bluesky once Mr Musk bought the company in late 2022, but Bluesky raised a US$15 million (S$20 million) funding round in October.

How do users sign up?

Bluesky is available to download on both Apple’s App Store and the Google Play store for Android users.

Bluesky was initially invite-only when it first launched – executives said that was to keep the service from crashing or experiencing technical glitches, not to be exclusive – but it has since opened the network to anybody, and you no longer need a code to join.

.PUNCH