Bluesky has revealed how it plans to start making money without necessarily having to rely on ads. The platform will remain free to use for everyone, though it’s working on a premium subscription that will provide access to profile customization tools (remember when Myspace offered that for free?) and higher quality video uploads.
One thing that you won’t get as a paid user, though, is any preferential treatment. Unlike certain other social platforms, Bluesky won’t boost the visibility of premium members’ posts. Nor will they get any kind of blue check, according to chief operating officer Rose Wang.
They claim to be a public benefit corporation, so while they obviously need to get income to run servers and fund development, their objective as a company isn’t just to maximize shareholder value.
I don’t know where/how to find their actual foundation documents to see what those actually say for their balance of profit vs mission.