Bluesky intends to roll out payments within the next several months, a move the social network is framing as its first step toward earning revenue without depending on advertising. CEO Toni Schneider and COO Rose Wang laid out that plan Thursday onstage at TechCrunch Disrupt. The company wants to build on buying, selling and fundraising that users already conduct on its decentralized network.
Schneider said people are selling goods, running successful fundraisers and supporting one another on Bluesky today. He said the goal is to make those activities simpler by letting users send money to something they see and want to back. He added that the feature should work for Bluesky and for other apps across the wider network, not only inside one client.
The timing of the announcement follows a leadership change. Schneider, formerly CEO of Automattic, took over Bluesky in March after longtime CEO Jay Graber stepped down. He said the reaction to his appointment caught him off guard, with some users joking that his arrival signaled the platform's decline, comments he described as reflecting fears that new leadership would bring unwanted changes.
Schneider said he recognizes users can move to another platform if Bluesky introduces features they dislike, and he said that possibility keeps the leadership team accountable as it prepares to launch monetization in the coming months. Both executives argued that advertising is not the only business model available to a social network. Wang said the common assumption that ads are inevitable and would damage the network is not the only path.
Wang pointed to Schneider's record at Automattic, describing it as a $10 billion business of which $1 billion returns to the parent company and the rest flows to the broader ecosystem. She also cited Bluesky's status as a Public Benefit Corporation, which she said keeps the company's mission central to its business strategy. Wang said the company must make money but that its infrastructure prevents it from locking users in.
She said the people creating value on networks should receive the money coming in, and she compared the current arrangement to a feudal society in which users work for a few landlords who set the terms and collect payments. Bluesky says it aims to give users ownership of their digital identities and control over their networks while building a more open internet where revenue reaches the people who generate it. Wang said the effort starts with payments but is ultimately about disrupting the underlying infrastructure layer rather than shipping another app.
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