Bluesky Plans Payments as Its First Alternative to Ads
Bluesky plans to add payments in the coming months. CEO Toni Schneider and COO Rose Wang described the plan at TechCrunch Disrupt as a first step toward making money without depending on advertising. TechCrunch
The near-term aim is practical. Bluesky wants to make it easier to buy, sell and fundraise on the network. That kind of commerce and fundraising already happens there, so the company is building on existing use rather than starting from zero.
Schneider and Wang said advertising is not the only way to run a social network. That claim connects to how Bluesky is built. Users can create their own feeds without ads, which limits how much ad space Bluesky itself can sell. TechCrunch
That wording is narrower than earlier statements. In December 2024, then-CEO Jay Graber said advertising was not off the table for Bluesky. The October remarks put payments first and leave advertising in the background, without ruling it in or out.
The payments plan follows a shift in leadership and funding. Schneider, former CEO of Automattic, became Bluesky CEO in March after longtime CEO Jay Graber stepped down. Bluesky had earlier raised $8 million in seed funding and $15 million in Series A funding, and later raised $100 million in Series B funding. TechCrunch When the Series A was announced, the network had more than 13 million users.
Subscriptions are part of the same search for non-ad revenue. Bluesky has been developing subscriptions as a way to earn money without filling the service with ads. PCMag
The broader context here is familiar to anyone who has run a consumer platform. Advertising earns money from total attention, which requires large numbers of views and systems to target ads. Payments earn money from individual purchases or donations, which require trust, high completion rates and repeat use. For a network like Bluesky, where people can assemble their own feeds, payments avoid the problem of not controlling enough ad space to sell.
In my view, the hard part for builders and sellers will not be the pay button itself. Moving money means handling disputes, blocking fraud, checking identities, timing payouts, setting fees, handling tax reporting and answering support questions. That list grows fast when physical goods, digital goods and donations share the same place to pay. Bluesky starts with an edge because people already find things to buy or causes to support while browsing, where discovery is cheap. The test will be making paying feel as simple as posting, without taking on all the work of running a full marketplace.
Worth flagging alongside that operational question is what payments mean for incentives. A network funded by payments does not need people to keep scrolling as long as possible. It does better when transactions finish cleanly. If Bluesky keeps the payment system neutral, clearly documented and steady for developers, creators, small shops and nonprofits can use Bluesky as basic infrastructure, not just a place to get noticed. That path brings revenue more slowly than ads, but it holds up better for a service where users can bypass the central feed.
