Since the Facebook revolution, a new social network has become popular every few years. Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok are some of the examples we all are familiar with and most likely members of. These social media or networks, connecting us from different parts of the world, have a great impact on our relationships and lifestyles.
Each of these social networks has features that set them apart and that’s why, just when we think all possible platforms have been built and the game is over, a new app comes along that surprises us. Clubhouse is exactly such an app.
When Paul Davison and Rohan Seth released the initial version of Clubhouse in April 2020, Covid-19 was spreading around the world, claiming more and more victims. Many businesses were closed and millions had no choice but to stay at home. Governments closed borders and no one could travel as before. In many countries, even traveling from one city to another was banned, and citizens could leave their homes only to buy food and medicine. These conditions are still in place in some countries.
As contact with friends and colleagues was cut off and relationships with others were done virtually, we could only communicate with other people through texts, photos, or videos. Clubhouse targeted this gap and was able to grow and become popular by focusing solely on audio communication.
Over the past year, more than 13 million users have joined the app and more are still joining. As with all social networks, it is clear that the more users there are, the more valuable they become. Bloomberg now estimates the app’s worth at about $4 billion, up 40 times from its early days.
The main factor for the success of Clubhouse is that the conversations take place live. It is like standing in front of somebody and talking to them. You cannot send text, photos, or videos to anyone in this application and you cannot record or share your conversations. As a result, everything stays within the confines of the rooms (you can enter rooms on different topics or create a room yourself and manage it). The number of members in each room can be a circle of a few friends or as many as 5,000.
What adds to the appeal of this app is the presence of celebrities. So, if the opportunity arises, you can talk to them or ask some questions. Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Oprah Winfrey, Demi Lovato, and other celebrities have taken part so far.
At this point, Clubhouse only runs on iOS, but they assure Android users that they will be able to participate at some point. And, like the early years of Gmail and Facebook, you can’t log in without an invitation.
After joining, you can go to any room you like but there are limits on who can participate in discussions and you cannot talk to several hundred people at once. These restrictions are imposed by the moderator or moderators of the room, who can allow up to ten users to talk to each other about one particular topic. If you want to participate in discussions, you have to tap on the ‘hand’ icon to raise your hand so that the moderator may allow you to talk. Any conversations are only stored temporarily and are then deleted.
Clubhouse has been able to respond positively to the need for people to talk and socialize, even when we all have to be alone and away from each other. But how far can this $4 billion app go? Is it possible that the number of users will reach a hundred million by the end of 2021?
All successful social networks have the main source of revenue from advertisements but Clubhouse has not shown any ads in the past year. Since everything is audio, live, and temporary, it is difficult to show advertisements. Some experts believe that the best way forward is donations.
Clubhouse may not be able to grow as much as other companies, or it may overtake the competitors and become part of the top five social networks. But in any case, no one can deny its influence.
Influenced by Clubhouse, Facebook plans to test Hotline and, in December 2020, Twitter launched Spaces. Slack and LinkedIn, inspired by Clubhouse, are also working on the issue and more news is likely to be released in the coming months. This shows that the idea and operation of Clubhouse is valuable enough that it can attract the attention of large companies and encourage them to make changes. The changes that arrived as a result of the pandemic, and that scared many of us, were cleverly welcomed by Clubhouse.
Image credit: Nappy