Clubhouse, the Next Social Media App
By Yaoyao Shi
Our life is filled with numerous forms of social media: Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, and TikTok. While Silicon Valley venture capitalists were stuck at home during quarantine, they introduced a brand new social media app to us: Clubhouse.
What’s Clubhouse?
Like its name suggests, Clubhouse is an invitation-only, audio-chat social media, which is more exclusive than most of the social media we are using now. It is now only available on iOS, but it is announced that there will be an Android version soon.
The app hosts various clubs and virtual rooms for people to join, which cover a wide range of topics like business, movies, music, politics, talk shows, etc. It is great for formal networking as well as informal discussions. Users are able to create a new room for discussion or to join a room. While you’re in a chat room, you could simply listen to the conversations or you could ask a moderator to get invited to ask questions or speak.
How does Clubhouse get popular?
Clubhouse encourages people to connect through only audio instead of pictures or videos. This pandemic has resulted in isolation, loneliness, and inability to connect among people, so Clubhouse is a brand new way to network with one another during this special time. Moreover, the platform is also popular among businesses during the pandemic, serving as a platform for networking. For instance, many roadshows now take place on Clubhouse which appeal to interested investors all around the world without the burden of traveling. Besides, it is a great place for entrepreneurs to generate ideas and practice pitches.
Clubhouse also got its hype from various celebrities. You can engage in conversations with Elon Musk, Drake, Virgil Abloh, etc. Interestingly, Musk tweeted at Putin to ask for a conversation on Clubhouse in February this year.
Is Clubhouse worth the hype?
I have been on Clubhouse for about three weeks. I need to confess that I joined because of the Silicon Valley hype, and I would say the experience is hit or miss.
To me, Clubhouse is like a live TedTalk. The good thing about it is that I could engage in conversations led by influential people easily that I could simply have my questions answered live. The platform allows me to learn about different things and explore new interests. The drawback is that it’s not as flexible as Podcasts. I cannot listen to them whenever I want and I have to be completely free when there is an interesting discussion. There are tons of chatrooms on Clubhouse, and discovering great ones also takes effort.
Surprisingly, Clubhouse hit a one-billion-dollar valuation this January. However, this seems like Silicon Valley’s unconditional love to me. I think the question becomes, how can Clubhouse generate sustainable revenue? If it is going to be like any other social media, then I would expect ads will come in later on, and then there’s a question of whether the content of ads will affect user experiences. Besides, it is also possible that Clubhouse will charge a subscription fee in the future to maintain its exclusive feature. Overall, its business model is still up in the air. Another concern is regarding user data and privacy. Audio is the easiest form of data to be used and manipulated. It also remains to be seen whether Clubhouse could effectively regulate hate speech or moderate rooms appropriately. Just like any other social media, Clubhouse is going to face many challenges in the near future, and we will see if it will sustain its current growth.
