Bluesky’s user surge spurs brand scrutiny — just in case it becomes ad-ready

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By Kimeko McCoy and Krystal Scanlon • November 29, 2024 •

Ivy Liu

Bluesky’s spike in user interest has marketers watching closely, but their wallets remain firmly shut. After all, they’ve seen this show before (Clubhouse, anyone?) and aren’t about to fall for another fleeting frenzy. First, they’ll decode it, then, maybe they’ll care.

With 20 million users and counting, Bluesky is undeniably gaining traction. The presidential election appears to have accelerated this growth, attracting users disillusioned with Elon Musk’s oversight of X — flawed moderation, questionable policies, and all. Since October, Bluesky has added over eight million new users daily, according to the company.

Marketers, ever drawn to shifting attention, are circling. But slow growth for much of the year and no significant revenue streams make it more curiosity than contender for ad dollars right now. Even so, it’s decentralized, federated model offers a unique proposition that keeps it on marketers’ radars — for what it might become, not what it is today, according to 12 marketers interviewed for this story.

“While Bluesky has the potential to be a great ‘replacement’ for X, and the audience is coming, it’s not yet in a mature enough state for some of the big brands we work with to be active,” said Steph Bennett, social media lead at Responsible Marketing Agency, who works with clients such as Diageo and the World Federation of Advertisers.

Here’s what marketers are noticing about Bluesky so far.

Bluesky doesn’t have advertising

Currently, Bluesky doesn’t enable advertising, and CEO Jay Graber has made it clear that ads are not in its future plans. Advertisers question how long that’ll be the case because platforms need to monetize eventually. Case in point: When photo-sharing social media platform BeReal took off at the end of 2022, it was ad-free and working with brands didn’t seem to be the priority.

By July, BeReal had new ownership and of course, ads, and has since sputtered out of the cultural zeitgeist.

For now, at least, there’s only so much marketers can do on Bluesky organically. And even then, some marketers are hopeful that the platform will accept ad dollars someday.

“There’s no reason to plan media around a platform that’s probably a … Read More