Jack Dorsey-Backed Bluesky Thrives As User Engagement Drops On Musk's X And Zuckerberg's Threads

User engagement on both Elon Musk’s X, formerly Twitter, and Mark Zuckerberg’s Threads has seen a notable decline, while an alternative platform backed by Jack Dorsey might be on the verge of gaining the most benefit out of rivalry between these two tech moguls and their subsequent microblogging sites. 

What Happened: X, which had an average of 21 million daily active users in the U.S. in the first half of September, is down from around 22 million in July.

On the other hand, Threads has seen a drastic drop in daily active users, plummeting from 3.4 million in July to 1.1 million in mid-September, reported MarketWatch.

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Paul Carter, CEO of GWS Magnify, pointed out, “Engagement is down on both, but especially Threads.” 

Carter attributes part of this decline to seasonal factors, such as people going on vacation. However, other factors, like the introduction of a paywall and the emergence of alternative platforms like Hive and Mastodon, have also contributed to this decrease in user engagement.

Abe Yousef, a senior insights analyst at market researcher Sensor Tower, noted that Threads’ growth has been hindered by the lack of compelling content compared to Twitter. Many Twitter users have been reluctant to make the switch.

Previously, Musk accused Meta Platforms Inc.’s META Threads of committing the “cardinal sin” of boring people to death. Users have also accused Zuckerberg of not using his own platform and compared him with Musk, who is known for staying extremely active on X.  

Meanwhile, Bluesky, a “decentralized” social-media platform backed by Dorsey, has been experiencing a surge in users, with more than 50,000 new members joining after Musk’s threat to charge users on X. 

The report noted that Bluesky’s total membership now stands at about 1.125 million. 

While Bluesky’s daily active users reached 237,000 in mid-September, it remains a fraction of X’s user base, which boasts 540 million monthly active users, according to Musk.

Why It’s Important: It is pertinent to note that in July, X took legal action against Meta, accusing the social media giant of a “systematic, willful, and unlawful misappropriation of Twitter’s trade secrets and other intellectual property.”

The dispute arose following Meta’s launch of Threads, an app strikingly similar to X. It prompted the Musk-led company to accuse Meta of poaching former employees to create what they view as a “copycat” application.

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