Jack Dorsey Shares Advice for Social Media Platforms He Co-Founded

HIGHLIGHTS:

• Jack Dorsey expressed concern that Bluesky's growth is driven by users fleeing X rather than being drawn to its unique features.
• He emphasized that product growth should stem from users seeking specific features, not just escaping competitors.
• Dorsey highlighted Bluesky's "algorithm store" as a major differentiator but acknowledged it isn't currently a primary attraction.
• He noted that users care more about avoiding X than seeking new experiences on Bluesky.
• Dorsey criticized the repeat of Twitter's mistakes at Bluesky, leading to his resignation from its board after stepping down from Twitter's board.

Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter (now X) and Bluesky, has raised concerns about the motivations driving Bluesky's recent surge in growth, offering a ‘warning’ along the way. In an interview on the "In Good Company" podcast, Dorsey pointed to the reasons behind Bluesky's rapid expansion.

He mentioned that users are mainly flocking to Bluesky to avoid the problems with X, rather than being attracted to Bluesky's distinct features.

“I think people are running away from X, rather than running to something on Bluesky," Dorsey stated.

Dorsey ‘warns’ Bluesky

Dorsey proposed that sustainable product growth should come from users actively pursuing specific features or experiences, rather than merely escaping a competitor.

“That's not a great way to build a product, unfortunately. We want people that are running to us for a particular thing that they couldn't do before,” he said.

Dorsey emphasized Bluesky's "algorithm store," which enables users to select their own content algorithms, as a potential major differentiator. However, he recognized that this feature might not be a primary draw for users who are simply looking to leave X.

“That is a reason why people will run to it eventually, and I think why people run to these services eventually [is] because they get more agency and more control — but it's not something that people care about right now,” he added.

“What they care about right now is not being in X for whatever personal reason,” Dorsey noted.

Bluesky, originally conceived as an internal project at Twitter in 2019, was launched as an independent public benefit corporation in 2021. Dorsey resigned from Twitter's board in 2022 and later stepped down from Bluesky's board, criticizing the platform for repeating the same mistakes Twitter made.

Bluesky officially launched in February 2024 with 3 million users and is said to have grown to 25.9 million by the end of the year.