New updates have been reported about Skylight.
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Skylight, an open source-based short‑form video platform positioned as a TikTok alternative, is reporting a sharp acceleration in user growth and in‑app activity following renewed concerns around TikTok’s U.S. operations and data policies. The company, founded last year and backed by Mark Cuban and other investors, has now surpassed 380,000 registered users and roughly 95,000 monthly active users in January, with around 20,000 new users added over a single weekend. Leadership attributes this surge to a mix of TikTok’s ownership restructuring, new privacy policy disclosures that raised user alarm, and technical glitches that pushed some creators and viewers to explore competing services.
For Skylight, the recent momentum is measurable in engagement metrics as well as headline user numbers. The app now hosts over 150,000 videos uploaded directly to its platform and, through its underlying AT Protocol integration, can also stream content from Bluesky, expanding its available catalog. CTO Reed Harmeyer noted that 1.4 million videos were played in a single day, representing a threefold increase in 24 hours, alongside more than 150% growth in signups, over 50% growth in returning users, more than 40% growth in average video plays, and a doubling of posts created. Co‑founder and CEO Tori White positions Skylight’s open, customizable feed architecture—where community curators can build tailored streams and control is decentralized by design—as a structural differentiator versus a single, opaque recommendation algorithm. While Skylight remains small compared with TikTok’s estimated 200 million U.S. monthly active users, the platform’s recent traction suggests a potential opening for an alternative model built on open standards, especially if regulatory pressure, geopolitical tensions, and privacy concerns continue to destabilize confidence in incumbent social video platforms.