Skylight, a decentralized short-form video platform built on open-source technology, is experiencing a sharp increase in users and engagement as uncertainty around TikTok’s U.S. operations prompts creators and viewers to explore alternatives. The growth followed TikTok’s recent ownership restructuring and renewed attention on its data and privacy policies, which unsettled parts of its user base.
Launched last year and backed by Mark Cuban and other investors, Skylight has grown to more than 380,000 registered users, with about 95,000 monthly active users reported in January. The company says roughly 20,000 people joined over a single weekend. Skylight runs on the AT Protocol—the same underlying technology as Bluesky—allowing it to support decentralized identity, community-curated feeds, and cross-platform video streaming.
User activity on the platform has accelerated alongside signups. More than 150,000 videos have now been uploaded directly to Skylight, and the app recorded 1.4 million video plays in one day, a threefold jump in 24 hours. According to CTO Reed Harmeyer, signups increased by more than 150%, returning users grew by over 50%, average video consumption rose more than 40%, and the number of posts created more than doubled during the surge.
The spike comes amid TikTok’s January 22 announcement of the TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC, a restructuring that reduces ByteDance’s ownership to under 20% in order to comply with U.S. government requirements. While the move was intended to address national security concerns, it also reignited debate among users over political influence, data collection, and platform control, particularly after renewed attention to TikTok’s privacy policy and a series of technical issues.
Skylight’s leadership says its growth reflects a broader shift in how users think about social platforms. “We’ve seen what happens when one person dictates what’s pushed into people’s feeds,” CEO Tori White said in an interview with TechCrunch. “That model damages both creator relationships and the overall health of the platform.” While Skylight remains small compared with TikTok’s roughly 200 million monthly active users in the U.S., its recent momentum suggests that demand for more open, user-governed social video platforms may be starting to break into the mainstream.