It appears that a Twitter substitute has formally emerged from the crowd. An update from Mastodon claims that since Elon Musk, Twitter’s new owner, took control of the service, it has been rapidly adding users. Mastodon is a decentralized, open-source alternative to Twitter.
“Mastodon has recently exploded in popularity, jumping from approx. 300K monthly active users to 2.5M between the months of October and November, with more and more journalists, political figures, writers, actors, and organizations moving over,” Mastodon creator Eugen Rochko said in a statement.
In just one month, the number of users has increased from 300,000 to 2.5 million, which is a significant increase for a platform that is only one of many competing to replace Musk’s chaotic new Twitter.
Mastodon announced at the beginning of last month that it had about 655,000 subscribers, only days after Musk purchased Twitter.
Therefore, the most recent update demonstrates that the growth pattern wasn’t a sudden swing caused by new people joining at a certain time.
Mastodon’s continued rise seems to be supported by Elon Musk’s stunts.
It should be emphasized that only Mastodon usage through the end of November is included in these statistics.
It would be intriguing to observe how growth looks in December, particularly in the days after Musk suspended a few reporters who had been covering him.
Mastodon has been active for around six years and once attracted a sizable niche user base of tech-savvy individuals.
It is now expanding well beyond that. Users from a variety of backgrounds appear to be joining Mastodon.
Of course, the Twitter rival still has a tiny fraction of Twitter’s around 250 million daily active users.
Additionally, many Mastodon users continue to use their Twitter accounts in addition to their Mastodon accounts, showing that they have not yet completely cut ties with the Musk-owned network.
But it’s always a good idea to have options in the current social media scene. Mastodon is convincingly arguing that it’s the place to go if you’re looking for anything other than what Musk is providing.
To read our blog on “Elon Musk will step down as CEO of Twitter once a replacement is identified,” click here.
