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Threads Adds 35 Million More Members in November - But Bluesky's Traffic is Surging (theverge.com) 86

At the start of November Threads had 275 million members. But in 30 days it's apparently increased another 12%, reports The Verge: Threads has accrued over 35 million signups so far in November and is "going on three months with more than a million signups a day," Meta spokesperson Alec Booker told The Verge in an email today. 20 million of those signups have come since November 14th, as Axios notes...

At the same time, Bluesky has seen a surge of interest. The platform grew to 15 million users earlier this month and continued to add about a million signups per day for several days. It now sits at over 22 million users.

Dave Earley, audience editor at Guardian Australia, says that traffic to TheGuardian.com from BlueSky "is already 2x that of Threads." [T]hat's on a straight threads.net vs bsky.app referral comparison. BUT! 75-80% of tracked referral from owned Bluesky account posts is NOT being attributed to bsky.app, so I'm certain organic traffic would be undercounting by that much as well. By which I mean, I'm pretty sure traffic from bsky.app to theguardian.com is *significantly* higher than the very obvious 2x that of Threads.
That post was in response to one by a platform VP for the Boston Globe newspaper, who'd reported that traffic from Bluesky to bostonglobe.com "is already 3x that of Threads, and we are seeing 4.5x the conversions to paying digital subscribers."

And Axios notes that Bluesky's growth "has spurred inbound interest for a new investment round, just weeks after raising $15 million in Series A funding, per Axios' Dan Primack."

In response, Threads "rolled out a series of changes over the past week in what was seen as an attempt to keep an edge over Bluesky," reports The Hill: The changes included a new custom feed feature, which gives users the ability to build their feeds around the topics and people they are most interested in. Bluesky lets users make their own lists and feeds and set their own content moderation preferences. The platform also rolled out a few "long-overdue improvements" to its search and trending now features and its algorithm.

Threads Adds 35 Million More Members in November - But Bluesky's Traffic is Surging

Comments Filter:
  • by gweihir ( 88907 ) on Saturday November 30, 2024 @12:38PM (#64981445)

    Kind of fitting with Elon-the-asshole in charge.

    • But how many bots are on extwitter and Threads? If both Zucker and Musk are friendly with Trump then they both must be friends to each other. Prolly have been secretly visiting each others often for dinner and having scat fests. Which illusion do you think AWS, Microsoft, and Google are rivals to each others or working together in secret against other countries to keep them down?
      • by dknj ( 441802 )

        Well then you will absolutely LOVE this new service called bsky, they have absolutely zero protections against bots and even encourage bot creation!

        Have you not realized that social media does not actually solve problems, but merely pretends to at the surface level but under the covers acts like every other hazardous social media service?

        https://docs.bsky.app/docs/starter-templates/bots [bsky.app]

    • ...He said, his self-righteousness blinding him to the rather obvious irony...

      • by gweihir ( 88907 )

        You wish. Oh, and a response on the level of a petulant 3 year old just makes you look retarded.

        • You literally just said "they're full of hate" and then called their owner an asshole...out of love?

          How oblivious ARE you?

    • by shanen ( 462549 )

      Okay, but I wish you'd gone for a joke. Something about "Who forgot to flush the cesspool formerly known as Twitter?"

      For what little it's worth, I think Bluesky looks nicer than Mastodon, but I like the design ideas of Mastodon more. Neither of them seems to have a viable business model, unfortunately. I won't touch Threads or any other Zuckerberg production if there is any way to avoid it. (I used the less vile cesspool known as Twitter for some years and was an early user of Facebook until 2022.)

  • I had a peanut butter and jam sandwich. Grape jam specifically. I prefer jam to jelly or preserves as it spreads better. Nothing special about the peanut butter, just skippy, so likely nearly as much oil and peanut but it was yummy as could be an 100% whole wheat bread.

    See editors, my completely pointless post is already worth more then this drivel you are posting about meta bullshit. No one on Slashdot fucking cares how many idiots are on threads.

    While the government shouldn't be involved, it will actually

    • Grape pb&j - it's a classic, but over the years, I have come to savor strawberry pb&j even more.

      We just had a conversation, about pb&j. It was a feel good conversation. Nostalagia. Happiness. Makes me hungry for a gooey drippy pb&j sandwich right now. What can be bad?

      So, your point is is not pointless. And as you correctly imply, your point and this conversation may be worth more than anything on Twitter-X these days or stories about its wannabe clones.

      The government can ban social med

      • by dknj ( 441802 )

        Crofton's Raspberry Jelly. Best of Strawberry and Grape in a single flavor. Plus it's organic and can be found at your local supermarket

  • worth adding (Score:1, Flamebait)

    by dawg1234 ( 6925868 )
    musk bad
  • by xack ( 5304745 ) on Saturday November 30, 2024 @01:08PM (#64981513)
    For those who got fed up of Reddit. And of course Slashdot still exists after all this time, and despite being like 1% of the original comment volume of the 2000s, it still gives me a chance to vent my tech gripes.
  • by Speare ( 84249 ) on Saturday November 30, 2024 @01:49PM (#64981581) Homepage Journal
    If sign-ups are jumping that fast but traffic isn't, it sounds like phantom numbers to me. Are we sure they didn't just flip a switch and make all Insta or WhatsApp or Reels users into Threads users?
    • "Phantom Numbers" are the first thing I thought of too. Bsky continues to grow, and have daily "growing pains" as a result, but I frequently see notable people posting engagement numbers lauding Bsky for their service.

      However if Threads is adding over a quarter of a million users, but engagement is flat, that simply doesn't add up. Especially when you consider that Zuck has added a Bsky feature to Threads (Lists) that should make engagement even easier
  • Not saying it's not good to have diversity in the marketplace of ideas, I just don't see bluesky achieving an underdog breakthrough.
    • If Bluesky would give the intolerant lefties a place to vent, while leaving normal folks in peace, then it would not be a bad thing. The trouble however is that lefties hate being without an unwilling audience and they always go out of their way to find normal people to annoy.
      • by quonset ( 4839537 ) on Saturday November 30, 2024 @02:59PM (#64981733)

        If Bluesky would give the intolerant lefties a place to vent, while leaving normal folks in peace, then it would not be a bad thing.

        Try again [imgur.com]. What you really meant to say is there is a large group of people whose only response to everything is MAGA! and who is unwilling to listen to, let alone consider, any idea which contradicts their bigotry. For example, when you tell them the stock market, as a rule, does better under Democrats than Republicans, they lose their shit despite the facts speaking for themselves. When you tell them that women trying to be seen as equal to men don't commit 80% of all violent crime [imgur.com], or that 99% of all murders are committed by men, they will immediately change the subject.

        So try again.

        • by fahrbot-bot ( 874524 ) on Saturday November 30, 2024 @03:36PM (#64981779)

          ... there is a large group of people whose only response to everything is MAGA!

          One (one!) of the sad things is that they don't realize the slippery slope they're on and how easy it is to be deemed "not MAGA enough" and banished. This is a group that revolves around exclusion and sooner or later many inside this circle will find themselves on the outside because of the slightest thing. They were fooled once, and I sympathize but not for this second time. The first time around, many wanted to offer, or hoped for, the benefit of the doubt, but that doesn't exist this time; they know what they were getting, this is what they voted for and (apparently) support. They made their bed...

          (Also, spot-on about the rest of your comment.)

        • they will immediately change the subject

          You mean the same way the left leaning people change the subject when you would like to discuss things like:
          - Men having 0 decision power on abortion? If women can abort their child, why can men not "reject" their paternal responsibilities? They are essentially told: "suck it up, if you didn't want kids you should not have had sexual relations".
          - Men having significantly heavier penalties for the same crimes
          - Men un-aliving themselves way more than women
          - Women not being subject to military draft

        • It's easy to filter. I have a nice feed of things I like and like to look at. It's neato and pretty unimportant. I like it that I can make it what I want to see and show others...stuff. Now, who is it here that wants me to go to the A Clockwork Orange theatre? Can I still censor my own inputs?
          It's okay if I don't listen to you or the guy posting cartoon animals with boners.
      • Look at you. Big, strong alpha male, triggered by liberal diatribe.
      • ... give the intolerant lefties ...

        It's time for my preferred artist: https://thedevilspanties.com/a... [thedevilspanties.com]

        ... while leaving normal folks ...

        I suspect you've never used BlueSky.

        ... hate being without an unwilling audience ...

        Yep, that's why everyone is complaining about BlueSky.

        ... to find normal people ...

        Maybe you mean Twitter/X? Yep, that's why people are leaving Twitter/X: There are more dumb people on BlueSky. That's why the normal people on Twitter are complaining about the 'problem' people leaving.

        I just heard people complain the Democratic party is too leftist. Books are banned, Christian theology is a school subject, abortions are illega

      • Brown shirts, white hoods, red hats. I'll bet they all thought they were "normal" until they were shot, or arrested.
  • Threads is (sic) not growing. People are not flocking to it.

    Instagram with its over a billion of users has been pushing Threads via ads incessantly ever since Threads was released. People have been installing and using it out of FOMO.

    Can Mark Zuckerberg please release the stats on how many people are actually posting to Threads on a regular basis? What about commenting? Because that would indicate real growth. Not these sign-ups.

    I guess he won't. Investors won't like it.

    • X is popular as usual and I even hear about Bluesky recently, but never heard anything about Threads apart from their statistics, they must be inflated.

    • Another useful stat would be how many Threads users exist without an IG account.

      Oh wait, you can't make one without an IG account.

      It really is totally dependent on them pushing it through IG, I get notifications to 'check this out on Threads'.

  • Less compelling (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Himmy32 ( 650060 ) on Saturday November 30, 2024 @02:28PM (#64981699)
    Hank Green had a recent video [youtube.com] on why having a less aggressively polished algorithms and relying on community lists makes for a better experience on Blue Sky vs Twitter/Threads that I thought was enlightening.
  • wonder what musk is thinking at this time.. .considering the pile of cash he burned buying up Twitter and running it straight into the ground. And a clone of the original Twitter just absorbing all the user base.

    Maybe this is why he's pumping DOGE coin... trying to make up for the losses.

    • by Himmy32 ( 650060 )
      I doubt he's crying too much. Buying that platform helped cement him some political power and it's not his only source of wealth. Twitter isn't going away even if it suffers a bit.
      • yes, the rise in the stock prices of his other companies paid for most of that loss he incurred. It was fashionable to call him an idiot but looking retrospectively the valuation of his companies was never particularly following market fundamentals. He's a good marketer for the online influencer era where getting loads of attention does have a reality distorting effect

      • Twitter/X became a toy for a spoiled rich brat. While he didn't intend to break it, he's not that bothered by it breaking because Don let him play with the Federal Gov't now...

  • Full of bots and just no interest in Threads, Bluesky, Twitter, TikTok, Instagram, etc.....NONE ! And don't of any family member that does.
  • I'm surprised I haven't seen posts about Bluesky's opensource goals and roots. 1. Bluesky is a public benefit corporation which has the goal of keeping data open and portable in its charter. The company can defend against a hostile takeover just by showing the buyer would close access to data, etc. 2. Bluesky is federated and uses the AT protocol. https://atproto.com/ [atproto.com] It can be bridged with other protocols
  • Logic of the feed in the several recent weeks on former Twitter is ruined by the promotion of particular set: pro-ruZZia, anti-Israel, MAGA, all of which are opposite to my usual interest. Musk is using promotion of this to force upon reader. It was coming in the same manner intermittently months ago, back then did last several days to week. So far, permanent now. Way to kill Twitter. Pity.

I'd rather just believe that it's done by little elves running around.

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