Bluesky Names Toni Schneider Permanent CEO for 10-Year Push to Grow 45 Million-User App
Updated
Updated · The Verge · Aug 3
Bluesky Names Toni Schneider Permanent CEO for 10-Year Push to Grow 45 Million-User App
1 articles · Updated · The Verge · Aug 3
Summary
Toni Schneider formally took over as Bluesky’s permanent CEO after a short interim stint, saying the outside-facing change signals stability to developers and users even though his internal role changed little.
45 million users and a 50-person team frame his priorities: grow the Bluesky app, expand the AT Protocol ecosystem, and start monetizing this year through transaction or affiliate-style tools rather than traditional ads.
1,000 apps now run on AT Protocol, Schneider said, with daily active apps doubling since the start of the year and SDK downloads tripling toward 1 million a month.
Private-data support is the next major product and protocol bet, aimed at enabling smaller communities and membership spaces while keeping Bluesky’s public, text-first app intact.
A decade-long goal of 1 billion users underpins Schneider’s broader pitch: make Bluesky one app in an open network, with protocol governance gradually handed to outside bodies including a Swiss nonprofit and the IETF.