Bluesky and Threads, among X’s main competitors, have seen dramatic user growth following the U.S. election.
Bluesky gained over 700,000 new users over the past week. It has 14.5 million users in total.
The platform also raised US$15 million in Series A financing at the end of October. “Bluesky will always be free to use — we believe that information and conversation should be easily accessible, not locked down. We won’t uprank accounts simply because they’re subscribing to a paid tier,” Bluesky said at the time.
The company’s highest period of user growth was in September, after X was banned in Brazil. A majority of its users joining this month are American.
Bluesky was originally funded by former Twitter (now X) CEO Jack Dorsey, and has been publicly available since February. It is a decentralised social network, allowing users to host their Bluesky data on their own server.
Meanwhile, Threads is now the top-rated free app in the App Store. It boasts over 275 million monthly users, up from 175 million in July.
Threads is owned by Meta, and was launched in July 2023. Threads accounts are integrated with Instagram.
Threads became the fastest-growing app in history shortly after its release, gaining 100 million users in just under five days.
Elon Musk, X’s owner, is a strong supporter of president-elect Donald Trump. He frequently promoted false information about the U.S. election on X this year, according to the nonprofit Center for Countering Digital Hate.
Last month, Fidelity estimated X’s share values had plummeted 24% since July, and 79% since Musk acquired the company in October 2022.
Bluesky is privately held. Meta’s (NASDAQ: META) share price closed at US$583.17, down from the previous day’s $589.34. Its market cap is US$1.47 trillion.