The dawn of a new age on Social Media started with Orkut. Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter sparking a rage in the early 2000s transcend Orkut’s reach. Half a decade later comes Tiktok, reshaping video content consumption.
Clubhouse is the latest to stand amongst the set players in the social networking space.
Clubhouse is an audio-only social chat app, which came into existence in April 2020. By March 2021, the app had over 10 million weekly active users and a valuation of $4 billion.
Timing Is Everything?
Clubhouse is the brainchild of Paul Davison and Rohan Seth. The popularity of image and video-based social media platforms like Instagram, Snapchat, and Tiktok steering its inception. Clubhouse uses voice-only communication instead of videos and pictures.
Clubhouse got help during its initial release, with its launch a few days before the lockdowns and restrictions.
A month after launch, Clubhouse received a $12 million investment from venture firm Andreessen Horowitz. User base touching 1500.
The invite-only business model, which leads to slow user growth, helped it to become exclusive. A Clubhouse user can invite only two of his friends to the app. The user can join the desired room.
Tech professionals and celebrities from the early user base spur interest among the target audience. The Company sending more invites and launch of the android version has led to a surge in popularity.
Organic Traffic – Driving The Growth
Digital marketing agencies are on the rise. With the pandemic and restrictions setting in, the use of Out Of Home Advertising channels has come down. Full-service digital marketing agencies providing solutions on search engine optimization and social media marketing are steering the growth in internet marketing.
A seasoned digital marketing agency increases the online brand presence by using a mix of paid search and organic traffic.
Clubhouse’s strategy to increase the reach of its services through a referral system has led to an uptick in its organic followers.
A tweet by Elon Musk, inviting the Russin President Vladamir Putin, making Clubhouse a recognizable name. As is the case with most things that the Tesla founder tweets about, Clubhouse too became viral.
The appearance of Musk and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Chathouse led to rooms getting maxed out their 5000 person limit, redirecting the new listeners to overflow rooms. It is the tipping point that Clubhouse was looking for, and app installs touched 9.6 million in February 2021.
Almost every news establishment released a story on Clubhouse within a few days.
The app hosts a wide range of conversations. People are using Clubhouse to form poetry and storytelling clubs or to discuss current affairs. Celebrities are using Clubhouse to have more intimate conversations with fans.
All In The House!
Davison and Seth have been part of Silicon Valley for quite a long time. So, acquiring the right set of skills for designing the Clubhouse was not a concern for the duo.
Davison is the creator of Math Camp, now a Pinterest entity. A bunch of discovery apps, like Highlight, are under its hat. Seth, a former Google software engineer, is a Stanford graduate.
Clubhouse being a voice-only app, aims to remove the worry about the appearance of a social media user. Wherever you are or whatever you are wearing, you can get along.
A real-time user engagement lies in the heart of Clubhouse philosophy. Sending a text and going back to the task at hand is the norm. Clubhouse plans to change this by sparking communication and increasing user engagement through the audio content.
Old Wine In A New Bottle?
From the early days of the Internet, millions of users gather in online chat rooms. Clubhouse combines such features of the past and creates a unique user experience.
Earlier, one would get specific chat rooms for various topics. A chat room to share recipes, favorite movies, or debate on politics was prevalent in the early days. Clubhouse replaces text with audio as a form of communication.
Clubhouse, with a simple chat interface, allows users to toggle between the different chat rooms. One can select multiple topics of interest, like the other popular social media apps. This selection helps form a better recommendation of Clubhouse rooms.
The audio starts as soon as one joins the room. The creator controls who can speak, and others can do the same by raising a hand virtually, with the help of a button. Once the live conversation finishes and everyone leaves the chat room, the audio auto-deletes.
So, Clubhouse has a space that is niche and is fast becoming a global sensation. In response to Clubhouse, many companies have come up with their audio platforms.
But, can Clubhouse retain and sustain the growth trajectory?
Twitter launching Twitter Space, Reddit with Reddit Talk, Facebook working on Live Audio Rooms, and Spotify launching Greenroom will trigger a new war for a virgin space – Social Audio Media.