[jacob2161]

I believe this isn't as much of a problem as it appears to be at first glance because of the scale of social apps like Bluesky.

For example, Wikipedia generates >$180M/yr just by running ads for itself requesting donations. Requesting donations is the least effective monetizing strategy and yet it still works because of scale.

Donations would probably work but Bluesky has additional options. They could create a premium app for power users that just adds nice-to-have features (which may cost real money to provide and maintain), they can resell domain names, they can sell merch, etc.

Bluesky doesn't need to generate billions of dollars to be highly sustainable and profitable. It was built and scaled with fewer than 20 full time employees.

The most important and most difficult part is getting to sufficient scale, and that's mostly a matter of just making the app even better than it is today.

I posted a bit about this here: https://bsky.app/profile/jacob.gold/post/3lr5j6o7emk2t

[isodev]

> Bluesky doesn't need to generate billions of dollars

Are you sure their investors share this vision?

[jacob2161]

1. I believe they actually could generate (low) billions of dollars without compromising at all, if they manage to reach true mainstream scale (>1 billion MAUs)

2. I really don't care if the investors/shareholders are disappointed as long as the PBC's mission is fulfilled. Also their control is relatively limited.

Maybe I should have written added this:

Disclaimer: I am a shareholder in Bluesky Social, PBC (former employee)

[toomuchtodo]

Investors might get soaked, such is the risk of capital investment. Everything built on AT Protocol would survive.

[hinkley]

It’s also possible to run an annual event that makes a profit. Which might be something a social network could figure out.

The first club I belonged to as a teenager worked this way. In lieu of high membership dues there was volunteer time spent helping out at or before the event. I was surprised as an adult to learn that some events lose money or only break even.

[extraduder_ire]

Their largest operating income thus-far has been from selling two batches of t-shirts. Alongside some minor affiliate revenue from sending people to a domain registrar which they don't advertise anywhere prominent. (all handles are domain names, getting one that doesn't end in .bsky.social means getting one elsewhere)

[Onavo]

They better start putting together an avant garde Blue Sky art gallery then. Real estate in NYC and SF aren't cheap.

[Suppafly]

>For example, Wikipedia generates >$180M/yr just by running ads for itself requesting donations. Requesting donations is the least effective monetizing strategy and yet it still works because of scale.

Plus most of that goes towards other wikimedia projects, wikipedia itself despite being huge and used by most of the internet costs a fraction of that to run yearly.