Bluesky may start offering a paid subscription service soon. The lesser-known social media platform has been growing steadily and intends to offer its paying members better services.
Bluesky working on a subscription service
X (formerly Twitter) has proven there’s money in offering a subscription service. Elon Musk has been somewhat successful in urging several X users to pay for a monthly or annual subscription.
In exchange for a fee, X extends certain exclusive features and functions that aren’t available to free users. Additionally, the micro-blogging network assures posts from paying members get better visibility or exposure.
Bluesky, commonly abbreviated as Bsky, is a decentralized microblogging social platform similar to Twitter. Introduced way back in 2021 it started growing rapidly after Elon Musk acquired Twitter and renamed it to X.
Bluesky may not be as big as X. However, it has been quietly amassing users for the past three years. It experienced a surge recently when Brazil temporarily banned X. The social media platform is now reportedly working on a subscription service, indicated Bluesky chief operating officer Rose Wang,
“Subscription revenue helps us improve the app, grow the developer ecosystem, and gives us time to explore business models beyond traditional ads.”
What benefits or perks will the paying Bluesky members get?
X treats its paying members far better than the free users. The X Premium membership allows users to post longer Tweets, edit Tweets, and ensures the posts have better reach on the platform. One of the biggest perks of the X Premium subscription is the blue tick that denotes a verified account.
Strangely, the Bluesky app won’t offer any of the aforementioned perks to paying members, Wang mentioned in a post on Bluesky.
“Paid subscribers won’t get special treatment elsewhere in the app, like up-ranking premium accounts or blue checks next to their names.”
Instead, the Bluesky subscription service will allow paying members to upload and view higher-quality videos, and some profile customization options. Needless to say, these perks don’t seem attractive enough to pay for accessing and using the social media platform.
Incidentally, Bluesky hasn’t indicated how much a subscription could cost. If the microblogging platform charges a small fee, several X and Threads users could pay for a subscription. Recent reports have indicated that several X users aren’t happy with Musk diluting the blocking feature.
