Bluesky T-Shirt Sales Outperform Domain Revenue

Bluesky's Unexpected Revenue Stream

During last week’s SXSW conference, Bluesky CEO Jay Graber generated significant attention. She appeared at her keynote event wearing a T-shirt that appeared to be a subtle critique of Meta’s founder, Mark Zuckerberg.

The seemingly understated message resonated strongly with many. Users quickly encouraged Bluesky to replicate and offer Graber’s shirt for sale – despite its design featuring a complex Latin phrase printed in black on black fabric.

T-Shirt Sales Outperform Domain Revenue

Rose Wang, Bluesky’s COO, revealed a surprising outcome. The company’s revenue from a single day of T-shirt sales exceeded the income generated from two years of custom domain sales.

In a playful post on Bluesky, Wang quipped, “That’s it. Pivoting to a tshirt company…”

The Shirts' Meaning and Origin

These shirts, priced at $40, serve as a direct response to a shirt previously designed and worn by Zuckerberg at an event. His shirt boldly proclaimed, Aut Zuck aut nihil, translating to “Zuck or nothing.”

Zuckerberg’s statement references the Latin phrase Aut Caesar aut nihil, establishing a comparison between himself and the historically contentious Roman dictator, Julius Caesar.

Graber’s shirt counters with Mundus sine Caesaribus, meaning “a world without Caesars.”

Zuckerberg's Roman Empire Obsession

Zuckerberg has consistently expressed a fascination with the Roman empire, considering it his personal “Roman empire.” He seemingly identifies parallels between his own position and that of Julius Caesar.

Both figures possess considerable power and elicit divisive opinions. However, equating oneself to a figure as historically debated as Caesar requires substantial self-regard.

Rapid Sell-Out and Reopening of Sales

Graber’s shirt proved immensely popular, leading to a swift sell-out of the initial production run. Bluesky subsequently reopened its Shopify page for orders on Tuesday, with the ordering window remaining open for one week.

As Wang highlighted, the revenue from shirt sales in just one day surpassed the earnings from two years of custom domain sales.

Domain Sales: A Secondary Focus

Despite the impressive T-shirt sales, Wang explained to TechCrunch that Bluesky hadn’t actively promoted its domain sales. While offering domains aligns with Bluesky’s functionality – allowing users to utilize owned domains as social media handles – this feature was never fully integrated into the Bluesky application.