(Bloomberg) -- Bluesky, the upstart social network that has emerged as a rival to Elon Musk’s X, has seen a flood of new users since Donald Trump’s US election victory last month, leading some users to view it as politically left-leaning or anti-Musk.
Chief Operating Officer Rose Wang said that’s not the goal or motivation behind the network, which has added more than 10 million new US users since Nov. 5. “To say that it’s a US-centric, left-leaning app is not correct,” Wang said in an interview with Bloomberg Television on Tuesday. “We’re also not building an app for one voice or one political viewpoint.”
Bluesky has a global audience, Wang said, adding that the narrative about the social network as a political alternative to X “will change over time” as more people join.
Many of the platform’s new users have pointed to X’s owner and that network’s pivot toward the political right as a motivation for leaving the site formerly known as Twitter. Musk, the world’s richest person, has been a prominent advocate for Trump and his campaign, serving as a key adviser leading up to the presidential inauguration in January.
Wang also said Bluesky plans to launch a subscription service by “the end of this year.” The company previously raised $15 million from investors in October, and Wang says the current focus is on providing users with new features.
She previously disclosed plans for a subscription, saying that Bluesky would charge for services like “higher-quality video uploads and profile customizations.” Still, “we would never put speech behind a paywall,” she said on Tuesday. “Nothing that is a core functionality you would have to pay for.”
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