growth – Gaming Master

Bluesky launches group chats and pivots to communities as growth stalls at 44.8 million users

Thu, 11 Jun 2026 21:17:40 +0000

[ad_1]

TL;DR

Bluesky launched group chats (up to 50 people) and is building Reddit-style communities with custom handles. Growth has slowed at 44.8M vs X’s 600M.

Bluesky launched group chats on Thursday and outlined a broader pivot toward community features, a strategic shift for a social network that has so far focused on open public posting. Group chats support up to 50 people in the current release. The company says it may increase that limit later.

The feature arrives in version 1.124 of the app. Chat creators control who can participate and can generate invite links that display as embedded cards when shared in Bluesky posts. Users can set who is allowed to invite them: everyone, only people they follow, or no one. Media sharing in group chats is not yet supported because it requires additional safety and moderation systems.

The more significant announcement is what comes next. Head of product Alex Benzer said Bluesky will build communities, smaller spaces inside the platform where users go deeper on shared interests. Communities will have their own handle that doubles as a URL, like community-name.bsky.social. They can be public, invite-only, or private.

TNW City Coworking space – Where your best work happens

A workspace designed for growth, collaboration, and endless networking opportunities in the heart of tech.

“Today, Bluesky is one big space. Communities will be smaller spaces inside that where you can go deeper and hang out with people who care about the same stuff,” Benzer wrote. The features will be built on the underlying AT Protocol with support from the wider developer ecosystem.

The timing is deliberate. X shut down its own Communities feature in April, citing low usage and spam. Bluesky is picking up where X left off, targeting users who want more control over their online communities without Big Tech intermediaries. Bluesky’s Attie app already lets users customise their feeds with AI. Communities extend that philosophy to group interaction.

The pivot reflects a growth problem. Bluesky has 44.8 million registered users. X has 600 million monthly actives. Threads has hundreds of millions more. If Bluesky cannot match those numbers, it needs a different value proposition. Communities and group chats offer something X and Threads do not: user-owned spaces on an open protocol, where moderation rules are set by the community rather than the platform.

X recently moved in the opposite direction, launching a standalone XChat messaging app while shutting down its group community features. Bluesky is betting that small, controlled spaces matter more than massive public reach, especially for users who have already decided they want an alternative to platforms operated by Musk or Meta.

Whether 44.8 million users are enough to sustain vibrant communities is the open question. Reddit works because communities have critical mass. Bluesky’s total user base is smaller than many individual subreddits. The group chat launch and the communities roadmap are an acknowledgment that growth alone is not working, and that depth of engagement may matter more than breadth.

[ad_2]

Source link

DATA.BET reports high growth in esports betting for Q1 2026

admin — Tue, 02 Jun 2026 11:56:32 +0000

Image source: PGL / X

Sportsbook supplier DATA.BET has declared the esports betting industry to be booming. The company reported revenue for the quarter doubled year-on-year, with turnover from esports gambling also up over 70%.

In a prior report, DATA.BET said growth was particularly strong in low-tier esports events, which are boosting sportsbooks’ profits.

The latest company release said that Q1 this year saw double-digit growth in profit, turnover, bet counts, and active users for betting on CS2, Dota 2, League of Legends, and Valorant.

Niche Markets Driving Profits

However, it again highlighted that other events are seeing more dramatic increases in betting. Niche disciplines collectively delivered a 245% increase in profit compared with Q1 2025, noted the company in its Q1 report.

Strong betting markets included Rocket League and Rainbow Six, driven by the addition of new markets.

“High margin efficiency has been a real catalyst this quarter,” said Bohdan Holovnov, Head of Esports at DATA.BET. “Partners have increasingly recognized that esports can deliver meaningful commercial returns, encouraging them to scale up promotional campaigns and drive more traffic into the vertical.”

“That feeds directly into more new users, higher turnover, and stronger margins. At the same time, we continue to offer the broadest match and discipline coverage on the market, and the impact is also reflected in the rapid growth of combo bets across our partner platforms.”

The company introduced new features this quarter, including allowing partners to embed betting markets directly onto mobile live streams. It noted that combo betting has grown rapidly, which is traditionally an area of high margin for sportsbooks.

Latin America Attracting Esports Bettors

Rainbow Six betting was particularly strong in Latin America, where DATA.BET said it “has solidified its position as a premium sportsbook solution supplier.”

Several countries are opening up newly regulated markets, and the region is a target for betting companies. Betsson reported strong growth in the region in its Q1 earnings, and hopes a recent partnership with Paraguayan operator JugaMax will fuel further gains.

Riot Games has experimented with new formats to engage teams in Latin America. For example, inviting teams that missed out on the Masters Santiago qualification, alongside second-tier squads from regional Challenger leagues, to compete at the Valorant EMEA Clash 2026.

The tournament filled a gap in the event schedule and led to strong new-player acquisition, with newcomers accounting for 55.4% of total bets placed.

Increased Wagering Increasing Integrity Risks

Increased wagering on low-tier events can increase the risk of match-fixing, as amateur players are tempted to manipulate their performances for betting purposes.

As markets expand, players may believe it may be easier to go undetected, but the Esports Integrity Commission (ESIC) warns that it is closely monitoring markets. The organization issued a wide range of sanctions last month.

DATA.BET has been a partner with ESIC since 2019 and alerts the organization to any suspicious betting activity.

Source link