Bluesky CEO Jay Graber made a splash at SXSW last week and appeared in the keynote speech with Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg in a t-shirt he subtly enjoyed. Or at least it seemed subtle. However, so many people appreciated the jab, users convinced Bluesky to recreate and sell Glover shirts.
Bluesky’s COO Rose Wang said he made more money in one day of selling t-shirts than selling a two-year custom domain.
“That’s it. Pivot to the T-shirt company…” she wrote in a Facett post about Bluesky.
The shirt, which Bluesky sells for $40, has been countered by Zuckerberg designed and worn at the event last year. His shirt declared aut zuck aut nihil, meaning “no backpack or anything.” Zuckerberg refers to the Latin phrase Aut Caesar Aut Nihil, directly parallel between the controversial Roman dictator and himself.
Glover’s shirts say Mundas Sign Caesaribus, or “The World Without Caesar.”
Zuckerberg has long been interested in the Roman Empire – the Roman Empire is his own “Roman Empire” – and perhaps he sees similarities between Julius Caesar and himself. Like Caesar, Zuckerberg is powerful and divisive, but requires a lot of hub arrogance to compare it to one of the most controversial politicians in world history.
Graber fans, or perhaps Zuckerberg’s haters, loved the shirt so much that Bluesky quickly sold out from the first print of the shirt. On Tuesday, the company resumed its Shopify page for orders. This will remain open for a week. As Wang said, the company was selling shirts in one day, making more money than its custom domain sales for two years.
As it looks, Bluesky appears to have not pushed the sales of the domain very hard, Wang told TechCrunch. Sales of domains make sense for Bluesky, as they allow users to turn domains owned by users into social handles, but the ability to buy domains was not even integrated into the Bluesky app.
If Bluesky’s other monetization ideas don’t work, it may be time for these coders to pivot into a profane fashion design.
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