Bluesky CEO Jay Graber on the need for social to recapture the open web's spirit at StrictlyVC SF

Bluesky's Rise and Unique Features

• Jay Graber is the CEO of Bluesky, a decentralized social media network with a protocol involved, and the platform has gained significant attention as a hot startup (12s).
• Many journalists and media people have reported having more interactions and gaining more followers on Bluesky compared to other platforms, with some attributing this to the platform having "the juice" (1m11s).
• The Bluesky team, who are posters at heart, built the platform with creators and news in mind, which may contribute to its success (1m49s).
• Bluesky originated from Twitter and aims to offer something different, with features like starter packs that allow users to create custom feeds and share them with others (2m2s).
• Starter packs enable users to create a list of accounts and feeds to add to the pack, which can be shared via a link, social media, or QR code, making it easier for new users to onboard and discover content (2m23s).
• The idea behind starter packs was inspired by the experience of some team members who tried Twitter multiple times before finding their niche, and the feature aims to overcome the problem of network effects and make it easier for people to join the platform (2m52s).
• Bluesky has reached 2.4 million users, with the number having grown significantly since the start of the year, when it was around 1 million users (3m27s).
• Bluesky grew from 3 million users through an invite system to 10 million users fairly quickly after its public launch in February, with the initial growth achieved through people inviting each other via invite links (3m57s).

Origin and Vision of Bluesky

• Bluesky started inside Twitter, funded by Jack Dorsey, and was largely created due to a paper called "Protocols Not Platforms" written by Mike Masnick in 2019 (4m23s).
• The paper proposed a vision for social media as a public good and open platform, allowing anyone to build on it and resolving issues around moderation and free speech by enabling users to fork and modify the platform (4m52s).
• Mike Masnick is now on the Bluesky board, and the company is steering towards the initial vision set forth in the paper (5m23s).
• As the CEO of Bluesky, Jay Graber is also the steward of the protocol it's built on, allowing users to join other apps built on the same protocol if they don't like Bluesky (5m48s).
• The Bluesky protocol is described as a toolbox for building social applications, with modular and composable pieces that can be used to build new apps, moderation services, or interoperate with other pieces (6m2s).
• Jay Graber believes that driving growth and using the protocol themselves is the best way to get attention on the protocol and ensure its robustness, with the original goal being to build just the protocol and get Twitter on it (6m44s).

Open Social Graph and APIs

• Blue Sky has been gaining traction with developers and users, and its open social graph and APIs have attracted more developers to check it out and experiment with the platform (7m13s).
• The social media landscape has been closed for a long time, and the ability to build new client apps or experiments on platforms like Twitter or Facebook was possible about 10 years ago, but not anymore (7m22s).
• Blue Sky's open foundation, open-source protocols, and open APIs allow for a decentralized social network where users can "vote with their feet" and choose their own experience (7m43s).
• The platform's design philosophy revolves around allowing users to vote with their feet, but also offers defaults to simplify the experience, while giving users the option to change them within or outside the app (8m8s).
• Users can choose their own adventure on the platform, selecting who they want to see or not see, and having a following feed that doesn't involve specific individuals (8m41s).

Funding Model and User Incentives

• The current social media funding model, based on advertising, is seen as a "resource curse" that has led to the degradation of the user experience, and Blue Sky aims to avoid replicating this model (9m18s).
• By not controlling a single feed and allowing users to pick different feeds or apps, Blue Sky leaves the door open for competition and avoids the pitfalls of the traditional advertising-based funding model (10m11s).
• Advertisers are not necessarily excluded from Blue Sky, but the platform's approach to advertising would need to be different from the traditional model, and the company is exploring alternative ways to integrate advertising (10m21s).
• The goal is to keep incentives aligned with users, ensuring that the user's attention is not the product, and instead, user choice keeps them on the app because they have options to leave (10m26s).
• Advertising, if explored, would be user-intent driven, and the model would prioritize what users and creators want, rather than trapping users' attention on the platform (10m32s).
• Subscriptions are being considered as a business model, with the goal of adding value and getting money flowing through the ecosystem, as it is believed that money follows value (10m53s).
• The subscription model is still in development, but it may include features like custom domain names, which are already being sold, allowing users to have a custom domain as their username (11m38s).

Verification and Authenticity

• Verification has become a significant issue on social media platforms due to concerns about authenticity, impersonation, and status, with people caring about what verification means and who is giving it (12m6s).
• The current verification model on the platform uses domain names, allowing users with well-known domains to verify their identity, building off the existing trust model of the web (12m53s).
• This approach solves the verification issue for some users, particularly those with strong brand reputations, but may not be a solution for everyone, especially those without a associated domain name (13m22s).
• Verification beyond the current domain name model is an area that is being explored, but no specific timeline has been announced (13m34s).

Competition and Open Approach

• There is ongoing discussion about introducing a new feature, with the goal of ensuring enough community buy-in and alignment before rolling it out, as it can change the incentives of the game (13m37s).
• Every social app that doesn't give users the ability to leave and only provides a single centralized feed is considered a competitor, including Elon Musk's X, Mark Zuckerberg's Threads, and Mastodon, a decentralized player (13m59s).
• The approach of allowing users to leave or vote with their feet is an open approach, differing from the more competitive entrepreneurs like Musk and Zuckerberg (14m32s).
• The pressure of competing with Musk and Zuckerberg is handled by focusing on the necessity of open social networks that can evolve along with society, as people need to be able to control the social networks they communicate on (14m52s).
• The current centralized model of social networks puts a lot of trust in one person to be right, which can be problematic, and a more open model would allow for more evolution and innovation (15m27s).
• The goal is to create a platform where anyone can come in and start trying new models of creation and moderation, as social apps have significant social implications (15m31s).

Growth, Funding, and Investor Relations

• The business is not solely reliant on the growth of the Blue Sky platform, as there are opportunities for success through other apps built on the AT protocol (15m59s).
• The company watches the market and takes advantage of opportunities as they come up, and currently, many users are choosing the platform for a better experience, including journalists who can get more eyes on their work (16m20s).
• The platform does not deprioritize links, allowing for more engagement, click-throughs, and sales for creators, which is a positive and compelling aspect of the platform (16m33s).
• The company raised $15 million in Series A funding, announced in October, and is focused on providing a positive experience for users and giving them what they need (16m54s).
• Blue Sky is getting attention from investors and views fundraising as a continual process, focusing on building relationships with the right people over time (17m16s).
• The company has close relationships with early investors, including angel investors who have been helpful in providing guidance and support (17m29s).
• One of the early investors, who previously led the dev platform at Twitter, emphasized the importance of building on an open protocol (17m36s).
• Blue Sky is currently focused on scaling growth and user retention, with a small team of 20 members supporting 24 million users (18m15s).
• The company communicates its protocol vision and dev ecosystem vision to investors, highlighting the potential for growth beyond the social app (18m27s).
• The social app is seen as a "lobby" to the open Social Web, with other developers building custom features and apps on top of the platform (18m36s).

Content Moderation and User Control

• Blue Sky is working to improve the user experience, including through content moderation, which is a necessary aspect of every social media platform (19m2s).
• The company uses a combination of automated and human systems for content moderation, with a stackable approach that allows other developers to build on top of their work (19m25s).
• Blue Sky's content moderation software, Ozone, is open source, allowing other developers to run their own custom moderation services (19m38s).
• This approach allows users to choose from different moderation options and for other apps to recombine the pieces in different ways (19m55s).
• Content moderation is a tricky problem, and a middle path is taken to make the right tradeoffs and compromises, prioritizing user choice and experience, with a focus on anti-harassment tooling and user control over their online presence (20m20s).
• Users have the option to opt out of quote posts and moderate their own reply sections, treating each person's microblog as their own blog that can be hosted on their own hardware if desired (20m51s).
• The approach to moderation is to create the best experience for the most people, allowing users to build on top of the platform or leave if they want more or different features (21m7s).

Responding to Breaking News and Future Vision

• The platform encountered a major breaking news event, the alleged coup in South Korea, and had to adapt to the situation, using a combination of automated and human systems to respond to the influx of users and potential disruptions (21m31s).
• The vision for the next generation of social media is to have a platform that is like the open web, allowing people to build new sites and experiences, with standardized core layers that provide stable, long-term infrastructure (22m31s).
• The goal is to create a platform where users can rely on their online identity and port it between sites, making it as durable as email or a phone number, and allowing creators to build their own audiences and communities (23m6s).
• The goal is for the "at protocol" to be a permanent identifier, allowing users to share their online presence in a consistent manner, similar to a domain name that they own, with the "at protocol" serving as their website address (23m27s).
• The "at protocol" will be linked to various apps, including Blue Sky, built on the app protocol, enabling users to connect with each other across different platforms (23m36s).
• Users will have the option to follow or connect with others on Blue Sky or through alternative means if they don't have the app, promoting flexibility and interoperability (23m44s).