Twitter alternative Bluesky comes out with its first paid offering. In a blog post, it lets us know that users can now buy a “custom domain” to set themselves apart from others.
In the same blog, Bluesky reminds us that it has no ties to Twitter since Elon Musk took ownership of it. Originally, it was a 2019 project by ex-Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey to establish a “decentralized standard for social media” and received the microblogging giant’s blessing. In that regard, at least the recent chaos at Twitter has caused said decentralization, with users leaving the platform in favor of alternatives, including Bluesky. Perhaps that wasn’t the kind of decentralization Dorsey had been looking for.
Tip: New social media apps rise from the ashes of Twitter
Paid service, to avoid showing ads
As a unique selling point, Bluesky has the advantage that no ads are seen on the platform. They want to keep it that way. However, it does mean a revenue stream is needed, with custom domains being the solution. Unlike its competitors’ premium options, Bluesky dutifully admits that you need to have some knowledge of domain registrations and DNS settings yourself. As strange as this setup sounds, the company boasts that 13,000 users have already converted domains to handles, possibly because they already owned them.
More concretely, Bluesky has partnered with Namecheap, which can handle domain acquisition. Since any domain can work that the user owns, plenty of alternatives exist. The option uses the AT Protocol to link accounts to domain names. It remains to be seen who will use this, apart from the fact that it allows you to attract people to your website. So in that case, you would already have a domain name in your hands.
Either way, Bluesky can count on a large influx of users, although that has more to do with the chaos at Twitter than that it itself is attracting people.
Also read: Twitter limits readable tweets count, chaos ensues