Interesting.

Interesting. I know that the Bluesky team is not considering ads to generate revenue, at least in the near future.

Instead, as their COO Rose Wang explains, it looks like they want to take a cut of the money people will make through the app/network?

https://youtu.be/pZbdkvdvT-8?t=443

#bluesky #atmosphere #SocialMedia

"Essentially what we hope to create is a new model that reflects the value that's actually being created on social networks where creators, builders, community curators are the ones who are making most of the money and then we are taking a fraction of that cost.

What that looks like yet, we're still figuring it out.

We luckily have raised VC dollars so that we can do experimentation before we're forced to put in a business model and so a lot of the the dollars that we raised was so that we don't have to depend on advertising."

#bluesky #atmosphere #SocialMedia

I wonder how this would work. If I was making money through Bluesky, and they ask me to give them a cut of that money, I could just move to an independent ATProto infrastructure? Or one where I'd pay less.

Blacksky has a PDS for non-Black people. Maybe by the time this is all set up, Northsky and Eurosky will be independent. There might even be more "ATProto communities", whatever the term for that is.

Will be interesting to watch.

@stefan There’s a different question we could ask in all these discussions: what if I was not the producer, but the market? What would make me stay on a platform selling me as such? This isn’t a new question at all, it’s the legacy question that got us where we are, but it’s the one founders downplay when raising hopes about money.

@mackuba.eu Right. But what would stop me from moving to a non-Bluesky infra and pay less, in donations to support an independent ATProto community?

Say, 10% of my income I make from the Atmosphere vs $8/month to Blacksky?

@mackuba.eu No, I got that, followed up here: https://stefanbohacek.online/@stefan/116388730477772233

@stefan I listened to the beginning of the video only, so maybe she gets to this later, but the way “social” is collapsed into creator-distributor nexus at the get go feels deeply familiar.

Community and mutual aid models feel very different from all of this—a different distribution of the labour of making, much more precarious but also potentially more resilient as capitalism keeps eating its own tail.

I’ll listen to the rest and come back!

@kate Definitely report back!

I pretty much only listened to the part about funding.

@stefan

@mackuba.eu I mean, Patreon seems to be working pretty well for people, from what I can tell? Or any of the other options.

And if this is something that will be integrated into the Bluesky app, or the protocol, others can copy it, and charge people less?

I guess we'll just have to wait and see how this all works out.

Like I said, interesting.

That is always the model I thought would work but I didn’t think VCs would ever be patient enough to wait for. This is the best news I’ve heard in a while. cc @Green_Footballs

Trying to think of ways this could work. Say they add a tip jar and you can now tip your favorite shitposters. And Bluesky takes 10% of their income.

But Blacksky can also add a tip jar and since they don't need to pay back investors, they can maybe ask for 5%?

Or maybe you make an app. And they charge for...API access? But it's an open network. Could they block you from accessing portions of it?

So someone pointed out to me that they could take advantage of their own AppView attracting vastly more traffic, and could use it to promote apps and creators.

That could work! Keep people from migrating to non-Bluesky parts of the Atmosphere.

But that also feels a bit anti-competitive? Might get some pushback from the rest of the community, maybe.

@stefan Ok so I listened to it all (and there’s a transcript at the link for those who’d rather skim). The status predicament of creatives v market wasn’t fully explored, but there was a discussion of BS anticipating both subscriber and advertiser attraction to specific features eg custom feeds. And some discussion of disruption of where money would go to, but less reflection on where money comes from.

@kate Interesting. Thank you!

> @stefan@stefanbohacek.online said in Interesting.:
>
> And if this is something that will be integrated into the Bluesky app, or the protocol, others can copy it, and charge people less?

That's the key to the whole conversation. Is there any incentive for Bluesky to make this open? Likely not. It'll likely be proprietary.

@julian Right. Bluesky really doesn't mind throwing its community curveballs.

They "forgot" to disclose a $100M founding round. They announced an AI-powered tool for making custom feeds, right after praising developers working on a manual version of such a tool.

Well, either way, this really will be interesting.

This sounds to me like they’re considering their own payment gateway services. If they did this, they’d be competing with Stripe, not Twitter.

The deeper you go, the more money there is in collecting payments. But it also requires *so much engineering and auditing* BlackSky (et al) would have no hope of duplicating it.

More likely, BlueSky would offer the service to everyone on ATProto (for a small fee) and collect 2-3% on EVERY transaction.

@stefan @mackuba.eu

@benpate Hmm, yeah, it sounds like they have to find a balance between being an open network vs being anti-competitive.

And I think the history tells us which way they'll likely lean.

Stefan Bohacek (@stefan@stefanbohacek.online)

@julian@activitypub.space Right. Bluesky really doesn't mind throwing its community curveballs. They "forgot" to disclose a $100M founding round. They announced an AI-powered tool for making custom feeds, right after praising developers working on a manual version of such a tool. Well, either way, this really will be interesting.

Stefan's Personal Mastodon Server (stefanbohacek.online)

@mackuba.eu