4 ms·

Bluesky is being valued at around $700M in new funding round

14 points by rglullis 2y ago

hu3 2y ago
https://archive.ph/XRuOJ https://archive.ph/XRuOJ
jqpabc123 2y ago
New funding is both good and bad for a social platform. The VC funders obviously expect a sizeable return on their investment. The pressure to achieve this paves the road toward enshittification --- just like it has at X.
- krapp 2y ago
  Yes, this is probably the beginning of the end for Bluesky. Luckily none of the vultures are circling Mastodon yet.
  - wkat4242 2y ago
    With Mastodon there isn't really anything to sell. The software is FOSS and the network is not controlled by any one company. Bluesky is still fairly centralised and thus has more ways of getting enshittified. I believe they are planning to decentralise more but this will be a lot harder now with 700M incentives not to do so.
- verzali 2y ago
  Growth will handle that for a while, so I don't think enshittification will start just yet. But eventually it will go the same way as all the rest.
consumer451 2y ago
I wonder is Mark Cuban managed to get on the cap table in this round. He has mentioned the desire, and has been very active in promoting the platform.
phoe-krk 2y ago
> Bluesky is being valued at around $700M in new funding round. Also known as: > Bluesky takes a loan of other people's money. It'll then need to pay it back, probably by enshittifying their product in order to extract the money out of its users. Unless Bluesky finds a source of money that is not venture capitalist funding, the above will happen.
- memhole 2y ago
  I thought the whole point is that it’s built on an open protocol and decentralized? Granted a number of people couldn’t or wouldn’t, but you could self host if it gets too enshittified is what I’ve always understood.
  - phoe-krk 2y ago
    It hasn't fully delivered on that part just yet, so it's still in the "maybe it might happen" zone. The moment it happens, I'll change my mind. In addition, every round of VC funding also requires them explaning their VCs how implementing an open protocol and decentralization is going to help them pay their investment back - I do not expect such talks to go well the moment the VCs realize that both of those make it possible for the platform to effectively resist enshittification attempts.
  - rglullis 2y ago
    > open protocol and decentralized Open? Yes. Decentralized? Not in practice. ATproto fundamentally requires every participating node to index/process every message being sent around the network. The whole thing about AppView can be summed up as "a global indexed view of every event from every node". ATproto delegates all the crappy parts (identity management, moderation) to those that would like to participate in the network, but all of that is pointless if your messages are not shared with the AppView servers. This has been Bluesky's intent from day one: by letting people host their own data at their own PDS, but by ensuring that the communication is only meaningful if passing through their indexers, they are effectively aiming to be to the "Social Web" what Google became to the old www.
    - 2y ago
TrackerFF 2y ago
Numbers of users on Bluesky: 26 million Valuation: $700m Number of users on Truth Social: 2 million users Market cap (DJT): $7.32bn
- Centigonal 2y ago
  it's almost like valuations in public markets are prone to major and sustained sentiment-based dislocations from fundamentals.
  - redserk 2y ago
    I'd be willing to bet that it's valuation is completely detached from the social network and is simply a way investors are using to bet on Trump's brand. The social network is just tagging along for the ride. Similar to Tesla's stock and it's occasional fluctuations in value coinciding with SpaceX developments.

14 points by rglullis 2y ago

hu3 2y ago

https://archive.ph/XRuOJ https://archive.ph/XRuOJ

New funding is both good and bad for a social platform. The VC funders obviously expect a sizeable return on their investment. The pressure to achieve this paves the road toward enshittification --- just like it has at X.

krapp 2y ago
Yes, this is probably the beginning of the end for Bluesky. Luckily none of the vultures are circling Mastodon yet.
- wkat4242 2y ago
  With Mastodon there isn't really anything to sell. The software is FOSS and the network is not controlled by any one company. Bluesky is still fairly centralised and thus has more ways of getting enshittified. I believe they are planning to decentralise more but this will be a lot harder now with 700M incentives not to do so.
verzali 2y ago
Growth will handle that for a while, so I don't think enshittification will start just yet. But eventually it will go the same way as all the rest.

consumer451 2y ago

I wonder is Mark Cuban managed to get on the cap table in this round. He has mentioned the desire, and has been very active in promoting the platform.

phoe-krk 2y ago

> Bluesky is being valued at around $700M in new funding round. Also known as: > Bluesky takes a loan of other people's money. It'll then need to pay it back, probably by enshittifying their product in order to extract the money out of its users. Unless Bluesky finds a source of money that is not venture capitalist funding, the above will happen.

memhole 2y ago
I thought the whole point is that it’s built on an open protocol and decentralized? Granted a number of people couldn’t or wouldn’t, but you could self host if it gets too enshittified is what I’ve always understood.
- phoe-krk 2y ago
  It hasn't fully delivered on that part just yet, so it's still in the "maybe it might happen" zone. The moment it happens, I'll change my mind. In addition, every round of VC funding also requires them explaning their VCs how implementing an open protocol and decentralization is going to help them pay their investment back - I do not expect such talks to go well the moment the VCs realize that both of those make it possible for the platform to effectively resist enshittification attempts.
- rglullis 2y ago
  > open protocol and decentralized Open? Yes. Decentralized? Not in practice. ATproto fundamentally requires every participating node to index/process every message being sent around the network. The whole thing about AppView can be summed up as "a global indexed view of every event from every node". ATproto delegates all the crappy parts (identity management, moderation) to those that would like to participate in the network, but all of that is pointless if your messages are not shared with the AppView servers. This has been Bluesky's intent from day one: by letting people host their own data at their own PDS, but by ensuring that the communication is only meaningful if passing through their indexers, they are effectively aiming to be to the "Social Web" what Google became to the old www.
  - 2y ago

TrackerFF 2y ago

Numbers of users on Bluesky: 26 million Valuation: $700m Number of users on Truth Social: 2 million users Market cap (DJT): $7.32bn

Centigonal 2y ago
it's almost like valuations in public markets are prone to major and sustained sentiment-based dislocations from fundamentals.
- redserk 2y ago
  I'd be willing to bet that it's valuation is completely detached from the social network and is simply a way investors are using to bet on Trump's brand. The social network is just tagging along for the ride. Similar to Tesla's stock and it's occasional fluctuations in value coinciding with SpaceX developments.