Scope / Scope
A year ago, in April 2020, Clubhouse came out onto the stormy stage of the social media industry, led by the Silicon Valley tech giants, with a disruptive offer: a platform in which communication between users was strictly sound. .
No messages.
No images.
No videos.
Only audio.
And he succeeded.
But a year later, Clubhouse faces a scenario that other applications have already experienced that, like her, have been measured face to face with the greats: the copying and imitation of their ideas, marketed by technological monsters with user bases that are they count in millions.
Is it possible that a platform whose idea has already been copied, executed and commercialized by the industry captains will survive?
Seven knockoffs and counting
Clubhouse is proof that the good is copied. In just one year of existence, it has already been imitated seven times. Among its imitators, proudly parade social networks such as Twitter - which opened Spaces (
Spaces
, in English) and allows creating virtual rooms in which to converse with other people by voice - and Facebook - which recently launched
Live Audio Rooms
and it will offer voice chats both within the Facebook application, as well as through its messaging service, Messenger. "Once Twitter and Facebook deployed their replicas globally, it has been an important competition for Clubhouse, because they are social networks with a very large, well-established user base and with a huge possibility of interactions between them," says Pavel Sidorenko, professor. from the Francisco de Vitoria University and UNIR. And there is more.
Other less traditional social networks such as Reddit, Discord and Telegram have also launched their own version of Clubhouse on their platforms. Reddit's is called
RedditTalk
and it allows you to create audio rooms that could be used for question and answer sessions, conferences or simply to hang out, as well as react with emojis. Discord launched
Stage
, to broadcast conversations in audio format. Telegram has broken in with
Voicechats 2.0
, voice chats within the instant messaging service that include greater availability in channels and the possibility of recording conversations.
Finally, platforms such as LinkedIn and Spotify have also surprised their users after announcing that they also work on their own version of audios among users. The social network whose focus has been the labor market, said in a statement released by the
TechCrunch
medium
that they were "doing some initial tests to create a unique audio experience connected to the professional identity" of its users. LinkedIn will begin beta testing "soon." Spotify, on the other hand, has been a bit more ambiguous. The podcast queen is looking to host live audio conversations, especially following the recent acquisition of Betty Labs, the company behind the live sports audio app Locker Room. According to
The Verge
, Spotify "sees live audio as ideal for creators who want to connect with audiences in real time, whether it's releasing an album, presenting a Q&A or even performing."
But so far, no specific plan is known.
Is the Snapchat curse repeating itself?
One of the biggest fears of any social network with a groundbreaking idea is following in Snapchat's footsteps. The platform that was popularized by the invention of "stories" - graphic publications with a maximum duration of 24 hours to document various user activities - saw how in the blink of an eye its idea began to be born in the applications of the competition . Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and even WhatsApp implemented their own “stories” and conquered the market. "I fear that something similar to what we already experienced with Snapchat and Facebook Inc. may happen. They did not reach an economic agreement and finally Facebook copied all its functionalities by integrating them into Instagram," explains Fátima Martínez, a social media consultant. Is Clubhouse social audio shaping up to go that way? Maybe.
"There is nothing to ensure that Clubhouse has a positive evolution, but the step should have already been taken and see where the intentions of the users were directed, and not remain as a window of marketing courses that has already lost strength so much by the transmitters themselves as well as those who connected motivated by their own curiosity about the novelty ”, suggests Sidorenko.
The most successful social networks have proven that in the diversification of their services is success. This is how Instagram grew - defeating Snapchat along the way - and this is how Twitter has understood, which has launched a revolution within its platform to include new functions. For Martínez, the biggest threat could be in networks with a professional user base, such as LinkedIn. "Time will tell us who is the winner, but I think that if Linkedin quickly develops its particular Clubhouse, it will have many options to remain as a leader in professional matters", predicts Martínez. “Social networks will ensure their success if they provide a strong and dynamic user community. But there are no keys or magic formulas ”, warns Sidorenko.
The audio put Clubhouse in the public sphere.
Now, paradoxically, the audio could be responsible for the platform falling into oblivion and becoming a good memory of an idea that was copied by everyone.
One year and all good, for now
Its success story has been told on several occasions. Clubhouse is an application that managed, just seven months after its launch, to register 600,000 registered users despite the fact that it could only be accessed by invitation and that it was a new and exclusive audio format and that it was only available for smartphones with an iOS operating system that has, compared to the Android system, a much smaller market share (according to data from the technology consultancy IDC), Android devices represented just over 86% of the units distributed in 2019, and Apple's iOS almost the remaining 14%). Eight months later, in December 2020, the company was valued at 100 million dollars and a month later, in January, when the application began to become popular in Latin America and Europe,reached a billion dollars.
“The social network must abandon the false image of exclusivity that it has tried to build, finally launch the Android app and wait for users to do the work, as has happened in TikTok, which has been an indisputable success. The broader the user community, the more content there will be and therefore the platform will evolve ”, suggests Pavel Sidorenko, professor at the Francisco de Vitoria University and UNIR.
The latest announcement from the company has been an opening towards the Android platform.
The application in the world's most popular operating system is already being tested internally and according to platform sources revealed to Cinco Días, the launch date would be in May of this year.
Clubhouse is also considering the elimination of its invitation system, an option that functioned as a regulator of user growth - especially when it was starting up, as Clubhouse had to analyze the functionality of its platform with the regulated increase in users - and as a strategy for exclusivity, which helped increase the popularity of the social network.
But will it be enough to keep your user base loyal?
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