So i’ve been trying to talk to a friend about the #Fediverse lately and they seem to think that the US Government will crack down on it because Billionaires might get annoyed if users move away from normal Social Media to move across to the #Fediverse. What do you think about this?
Mastodon was first released in 2016, by 2022 it had 4.5 million users, given the social media shift the entire fediverse has grown to around 13 million users in 2023.
Instagram Threads got 100 million users on its first week. Twitter has 450 million active users on July 2023. Facebook has 2.5 BILLION users.
I don’t think anyone is worried about the Fediverse, and I’m glad, I enjoy the less noisy ambience here.
@techviator Are you saying you don’t think the Fediverse could be the future of the internet?
No, I don’t think it will be. I think it’s great, just like the rest of the Open Source universe is, but reaching the masses requires mass marketing, which requires money, which means there has to be a way to monetize. And again, I enjoy not having the masses flooding our FOSS spaces.
@techviator That’s fair enough
I agree. At least from the corporate point of view, I think they see the fediverse as a small set of people who are unlikely to use the company’s product anyway.
@hoodlem As of the moment, other than what Threads has shown yes not to many companies have moved way into the #Fediverse but a lot of News Organizations have seemed to have moved to at least Mastodon with Products, Companies and Even Celebrities moving to Threads. It’s why me and many other people think the Fediverse might just explode in popularity (what could be good or bad, we are yet to see how something with so many people could work). Once Mark Zuckerberg opens those flood gates I don’t think the Fediverse will be the same, for better or worse.