Bluesky is the new kid on the social media block. And in the past couple of weeks, it has gotten very popular. So popular in fact, that invites to the new website are now being sold on eBay.
Just a quick search on eBay and you’ll find invites going for around $75 to $150, however those are bids. If you click on “Buy it Now” you’ll see invites going for as much as $6,900 right now. Which is incredibly insane. That’s just how badly some people want to get onto Bluesky, and away from Elon Musk’s Twitter.
To cap it off, after paying $6,900 for an invite, the seller is charging you $5.05 to ship it. It’s a digital code, there’s no shipping.
Why is Bluesky so popular right now?
Bluesky, if you aren’t aware, is a new social media network that was being built by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey even before Elon Musk bought Twitter. But since Musk bought Twitter, Bluesky has gained a lot of popularity. As Musk continues to drive Twitter into the ground, users are looking for an alternative.
Sites like Mastodon and Hive Social surged with new users in October and November after the Musk deal was finalized, but most users have stopped using those sites. Mastodon was the first to fall, because it is so difficult to use.
Enter Bluesky, who opened a waiting list for invites about a month ago. From the screenshots we can see, since we don’t have an invite yet, Bluesky looks like a stripped down version of Twitter. It looks exactly like Twitter, even down to the colors and fonts. But there are things missing, like private messages. The ability to block people was missing, but it rolled out earlier this week.
So why are people so interested in switching to Bluesky? Well, Musk is one reason. Another is so they can reserve their username of choice, and watch Bluesky grow up. Now will Bluesky take over and replace Twitter? Who knows. But it could end up being a really nice alternative to it.
If you want to get onto Bluesky, without buying an invite from eBay, you can check out our guide on how to get an invite here.