Aral Balkan

RE: https://vmst.io/@vmstan/116200819973767850

A venture capitalist, you say? How surprising.

Mar 10 at 8:17amWeb
Show threadFandaSinMar 10

@aral

I'm shocked!😂

Show threadA.A. DelafinMar 10
@aral The enshittification cycles are getting shorter and shorter. Gewinn muss sein!
Show threadAlbert CardonaMar 10

@aral

To this day I don't know how Bluesky is funded, other than by venture capital. Their business plan says "We believe that there must be better strategies to sustain social networks that don’t require selling user data for ads" https://bsky.social/about/blog/7-05-2023-business-plan and says the first paid service is custom domain names which seems risible, considering the sums invested so far and the projected revenue of this initiative. Also claims to have no "data moat", yet remains as centralised as it gets.

Our Plan for a Sustainably Open Social Network - Bluesky

We've been exploring avenues of monetization other than traditional advertising, and have raised a seed round to support our mission and growth.

Bluesky
Show threadTeflonTrout  he/himMar 10

@albertcardona @aral

MBA

Morally
Bankrupt
Asshole

Show threadBill BennettMar 10
@aral How long before it turns to rubbish?
Show threadDavid GerardMar 10
@billbennett @aral April 2023
Show threadBill BennettMar 10
@davidgerard @aral Harsh... but not necessarily wrong.
Show threadAndrocatMar 10

@aral That was quick.

Seems the "promises to enshittification" cycle is getting shorter.

Show threadDavid GerardMar 10
@androcat @aral I'm taking this as the VCs losing patience. Bluesky has literally no revenue. Even WeWork had revenue.
Show threadAndrocatMar 10

@davidgerard

Seems a lot of things that are really highly valued also has no revenue. And negative cashflow.

@aral

Show threadDavid GerardMar 10
@androcat @aral even OpenAI and Anthropic have *revenue*.
Show threadAndrocatMar 10

@davidgerard

I guess the circular economy is good for that, at least.

@aral

Show threadStuMar 10

@aral I don't mean to start a bar fight, but given their only income was the tiny amount from custom domains, this move felt like removing the "nice" CEO who said all the right things to cause user migration, like no enshittification, etc.and then installing the *actual* MBA that the bean counters and investors demand.

Pikachu shocked face.

Show threadJargogglesMar 10

@aral
Wait, you mean corporations can just... change who's in charge and none of the promises they made mean anything?

I can see why this would come as a shock to the people using Bluesky. After all, such a thing has never happened before - certainly not to a social media site anyway.