Bluesky surges past 18 million users as marketers weigh their options

Bluesky has jumped past 18 million registered users after opening to the public in February 2024, drawing fresh attention from marketers looking beyond X. The decentralized app began in 2019 as a side project of Twitter's then-chief executive, with a familiar interface but user-controlled feeds, no ads so far, and a pledge not to train AI on user data.

Skeptics question whether it can reach mass adoption alongside the established platforms; the common advice is to reserve a handle and wait. Threads, meanwhile, retains a differentiator as Meta's only app with fediverse data portability.

For 2025 planning, strategists keep returning to the same bet: short-form video with strong creative, produced low-fi if needed, tested for winners, then repurposed across Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube Shorts, and LinkedIn. Recommendation-driven discovery engines, however frustrating their unconnected content, give good creative a route to precisely targeted audiences.