People argue about whether Elon Musk is truly a once-in-a-generation genius, or simply another rich guy who invested his money wisely in companies that turned out to be influential.
But people can't argue that Musk is certainly polarizing.
You are either firmly in Camp Musk or not. Musk's style on social media doesn't leave a lot of room for nuance. You either hate him or you don't.
So his taking over of Twitter (TWTR), a social media company where polarization is often the name of the game, seems like a rather natural evolution.
Twitter users have responded to Musk's takeover with either rapturous joy or existential dread, with many high profile users announcing that they would leave the platform in protest.
While it is easy to dismiss those proclamations as empty threats -- similar to voters who threaten to move to Canada when their preferred political candidate loses -- there is evidence that at least some people are moving on to different social media platforms.
A new study from Financial World shows which of those platforms are benefitting the most from changing attitudes about Twitter.
Twitter Exodus
Using data from Google Trends, researchers analyzed which new social platforms have shown the biggest spikes in searches during the last 30 days. Searches for 'Twitter Alternatives' has increased by 258% globally in that time period, according to the study. Here are where those people are landing.
Mastodon
Searches for Mastodon have jumped 283% over the past 30 days, reaching an all-time high. The platform allows users to join different servers run by various groups and individuals. It's a more siloed type of social media experience.
Founder Eugen Rochko recently said that his social network gained nearly 500,000 users in less than two weeks, and now has more than one million active monthly users.
Bluesky
Bluesky is the brainchild of Twitter co-founder and former owner Jack Dorsey. The social media platform, which is expected to launch in beta soon, is being developed as a "decentralized Twitter."
However, the social platform isn't being developed in competition with Twitter, and Twitter could eventually adopt Bluesky-created protocols, The Verge reported.
Bluesky has seen a 207% increase in search traffic in recent weeks.
Counter Social
Counter Social bills itself as a safe place for discussion, promising "no trolls. no abuse. no ads. no fake news. no foreign influence ops." The social platform also offers a virtual reality version of itself.
Counter Social has seen a 159% increase in Google Trends searches.
Tribel
Tribel bills itself as the "kinder, smarter social network." The layout feels familiar with thumbs up buttons, but the company may not be living up to its promise of being a benign social media experience.
But people are still curious, with Google searches rising 400% over the past 30 days.
The platform has already banned Elon Musk, Donald Trump, and Kanye West stating: “Unlike Musk’s Twitter, we don’t put ad revenue over decency & truth. Purveyors of racism and pro-Putin propaganda are not welcome on Tribel, our pro-democracy Twitter alternative.”
