fosstodon.org is one of the many independent Mastodon servers you can use to participate in the fediverse.
Fosstodon is an invite only Mastodon instance that is open to those who are interested in technology; particularly free & open source software. If you wish to join, contact us for an invite.

Administered by:

Server stats:

11K
active users

So, fresh on the heels of last week's news that #Bluesky is considering targeted advertisements and more VC investment, today we learn that they have a paid subscription model in the works.

techcrunch.com/2024/12/09/blue

This should not come as a surprise to anyone. Bluesky is burning through money, and their only options at this point are monetizing their user base through ads, subscriptions and data harvesting, and/or more outside investment. Probably they'll need all these enshitifying tactics.

TechCrunch · Bluesky teases paid subscription, Bluesky+, in new mockup | TechCrunch
More from Sarah Perez 💙

They're calling it Bluesky+ and seems like you will get a nice badge and some improved user features. What is particularly interesting is that verification seems like it may be going behind their paywall: "Bluesky+ could be weighing offering verification (profile badges) as part of its subscription." Sound familiar?

Below is a mock-up of the subscription page discovered by a Bluesky user. The company has responded that the UI mockup “doesn’t necessarily match what will be released.”

In this era of VC backed startups, we have sort of lost sight of real business economics. It may come as a surprise to some that most businesses need to make more money, revenue, than they spend, expenses, and the difference if expenses are more than revenue is their loss. Unless they get money from somewhere, either increase revenue or get outside investment, they run out of money. This is called bankruptcy.

more...

Nobody thinks Bluesky is going to go bankrupt, because they have revenue options like ads, data mining and a paid tier available, as well as more money from VC investors like Blockchain Capital, who have already put in $15M.

But, at a burn rate which must be at least $1M per month. They'll need to do something soon.

Watch this space.

Meanwhile, Mastodon lumbers along. Improvements get rolled out slowly and carefully. People are frustrated with the pace, but it stays within its means and retains control of its future.

Thanks to lots of dedicated principled people, this amazing open distributed system works without mortgaging its future. It's solid, and step by step it progresses.

It's truly remarkable. In an era of overextended overinflated unworkable vulnerable enterprises, there is one actual safe social network option.

@mastodonmigration I would love to believe that #Bluesky will be different and can escape the #Enshittification trap.

But I have been burned by commercial social media systems twice - first Google-, and then Twitter. With #Mastodon at least I have the confidence that it will get better in the long run, which I don't have for Bluesky.

@juergen_hubert @mastodonmigration is on the same trajectory as due to the dynamics of commercial social media. In the best case, BlueSky finds a way to avoid the depravity of . Unfortunately, the is less attractive than BlueSky because it lacks prospects for content monetization or becoming an influencer.

@WetHat @juergen_hubert @mastodonmigration

I see a contradiction. Following the commercial monetisation route as #BlueSky must will lead to a poorer user experience. But Twitter/X is different. It was on that route but no more since Elon.

He is using Twitter/X to spread his worldview, not for profit. The proof is its capitalisation. No matter how bad the commercial route of others - Twitter/X is at a different sphere of disinformation, hate and blind prejudice than would make no sense to a purely commercial operator maximising profit.

WetHat💦

@stuart @juergen_hubert @mastodonmigration I do not see the contradiction. is not immune to being bought by another mad billionaire (even though they claim they are) who has a similar agenda.

@WetHat @stuart @juergen_hubert

Right. The thing is that actually running a profitable commercial social media network is impossible without ads, data mining and paid services, which degrade the user experience so much that people leave. The alternative is to operate at a loss by taking money from influence peddling billionaires. This is why inevitably users of these networks become captured pawns in the ongoing information wars.

@mastodonmigration @WetHat @stuart @juergen_hubert A social media with subscription only could theoretically work, and not be captured. As long as it is not trying to grow exponentially of course.

And I think the #fediverse, with people supporting their local server through donations practically does implement that.