Many thanks to my friend Keith who notified me on Facebook about this great little story where Bluesky has done more business selling a t-shirt than it has in flogging custom domains!
In short, the CEO of Twitter social media spin-off Bluesky, was at the South by Southwest (SXSW) event in the USA last month. In a live keynote event she wore a t-shirt that mocked one worn by Facebook and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
Last year Mark Zuckerberg designed and wore a a t-shirt with grey lettering on a black shirt that read:
Aut Zuck aut nihil
That’s Latin for:
Either Zuck(erberg) or nothing
And is a spin on ancient Roman edict:
Aut Caesar aut nihil
Which is:
Either Caesar or nothing
That’s a pretty bold statement about having to bow down to a dictator or not at all. Read into that what you will.
Apparently Mark Zuckerberg likes the intellectual prowess of messaging in Latin, which is on-point for a Harvard dropout. But also, it is a big arrogant and cheeky, comparing himself to the once supreme ruler of the Roman Empire. He does command somewhat of an empire of his own, so it’s also appropriate.
But what about Bluesky CEO Jay Graber’s t-shirt? Hers read:
Mundus sine Caesaribus
Which means
A world without Caesars
That’s a cheeky retort, aye?
In effect it mirrors the decentralised Fediverse that Bluesky represents, one where there are no supreme leaders, and we are all on the same level.
As with all things cool, the Bluesky CEO’s t-shirt caught people’s attention, generated a bit of a buzz, and created enough demand to persuade Bluesky to officially do a print run.
The t-shirts sold out! Fans were ecstatic.
And the funniest thing was that Bluesky’s Chief Operating Officer, Rose Wang, commented on the social media platform:
That’s it. Pivoting to a tshirt company… had more money coming in today than we did the last two years selling custom domains
Wow! Bluesky did more business selling a t-shirt trolling Mark Zuckerberg than by selling custom domain names for users’ handles.
That little episode did make me laugh and for a social media platform like Bluesky to make more money through merch than its own tech sales, is also amusing.
Another great thing about the Bluesky t-shirt sales is that they donated proceeds to the AT Protocol developer ecosystem – that’s the Jack Dorsey era Twitter spin-off open network that Bluesky is built on.
But yeah, wow! What a great story.
I’m not here to sell t-shirts or social media services but I can help out with other digital marketing challenges you may have through my availability as an SEO consultant. Call me on 07730 499 539 or leave a message via my contact form and we can talk about your next project.