So, What Happened To Clubhouse?
They're killing their platform and here's why
Okay, as you know by now, I’ve written several articles about Clubhouse already. Clubhouse has been one of the most successful and fastest-growing consumer apps in the modern-day and whether we like it or not.
As an app that started on TestFlight, it’s pretty amazing how much they’ve achieved, given that it’s only less than 2 years old.
Let’s take a deep dive into what’s wrong with Clubhouse and why the drop-in social app has been losing active users and new sign-ups.
Clubhouse isn’t exactly losing, but it isn’t winning either.
Clubhouse is killing themselves by not listening to their users. Ironic for a company that enables users to listen to conversations with other people.
Here are more reasons why the famed audio social platform is dead on the water.
Branding
They say that if you build it, they will come. A similar scenario happened to Clubhouse due to its already reputable and well-known founders. They managed to get it off the ground mostly through word-of-mouth.
However, we still have to grasp our perception of the app through marketing.
The how is measurable and identifiable, but then why is missing in action. Steve Jobs always made sure that Apple focused on their way rather than their what.
Advertising and marketing exist for this kind of reason. And because they simply work, through time. The whole buying or using your product action is entirely based on money, psychology, and sex.
The way I see it, Clubhouse seems to have forgotten a strong marketing and branding strategy that can strengthen their company.
It just lacks sexiness.
User Experience
Silicon Valley is known for its innovation and that if you save people time, money, and energy, you can easily convince them to buy or use your product.
Clare Black once said,
I found the biggest issues with Clubhouse were time commitment, notifications and quality.You had to take a lot of time out to listen to it and often the quality of the conversation just wasn't worth the time investment. Sound quality was also an issue, if you were listening to people with bad wifi or microphones they would cut out or you would struggle to hear them.However the thing that put me off Clubhouse quickly was the notifications - they were endless! I turned them off pretty soon after downloading but then I had to resort to checking the app often and it wasn't long before I stopped using it altogether.It was a good idea, but the execution just wasn't there.Let’s highlight the fact that an average user has to take a lot of time out to listen to it and often the quality of the conversation isn’t worth the investment at all.
User experience is one of the most important elements of every product, be that a website, an app, or a restaurant. You have to map out every single step by your customer or user and be able to put yourself in their shoes.
How will my ideal user enjoy my product? How can I ensure it will happen?
Essential questions like these are important and are part of the whole product development and design process. It’s good for them they have hundreds of dollars of investments, good business! However, it’s bad for them that they didn’t focus on the user experience.
If people have a bad experience, they will leave right away.
But could it be the money?
Quality vs Quantity
Making it exclusive was a great customer acquisition strategy, but perhaps they could’ve done it differently.
So, Clubhouse relied heavily on hype and FOMO or fear of missing out in its early days. It worked out, they amassed a large number of users.
However, their strategy pretty much showed how humans are all shallow, which is true. However, they played it wrong.
What they could’ve done is they should’ve made it exclusive for the purpose of quality and not quantity. Or at least, there’s balance. Sure, there was Elon Musk, Jack Dorsey, and Mark Zuckerberg, but from what I’ve noticed, they haven’t come back ever since.
One Jay Allen said,
I think another problem with Clubhouse was lack of refereeing on most channels. The service was pretty popular in Japan (and is still use there), but most channels are chatty men talking over….pretty much anyone else. Even on channels supposedly dedicated to feminism, a handful of guys dominated the conversation, making it impossible to get a word in edgewise.What Clubhouse could do is a partner with high-profile and very influential people again and host exclusive rooms.
The age of social media
Not only Clubhouse, but platforms that don’t solve a real-world problem are always doomed to fail
It might not be entirely the fault of Clubhouse and its platform, but it’s just how the age of technology progresses.
Social media is already an oversaturated market that an average person owns 3 accounts from different social media platforms. Be that Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, and now Clubhouse.
A Gregory Walker said,
Couple of observations I haven't seen so far - there are a number of people who've dropped FB, Twitter, and other platforms over the past few years who probably thought Clubhouse would be a refreshing alternative - idealistically thinking the conversation would be civil, topics broad, and communities self forming but ever welcoming. The reality, after a few months, was most of the biggest 'rooms' that were public seemed to involve bitcoin, dating (specifically 'shoot your shot' kinds of forums), investing, or... dating. Want to talk about arcane mid century pottery makers? Good luck!How awful your life can be if you own accounts on all platforms and you try it use them all? Awful. At max, you focus on two social media platforms and you establish your brand and presence there.
No one wants another social media platform anymore. Be that video, text, audio, audio-video, video-text, audio-text, you name it.
There’s too much of everything nowadays and people are getting sick of it. Both literally and metaphorically.
Unless the platform is solving a unique and real-world problem that offers a solution they can’t find anywhere else, people will just move on.
Everything is becoming a bubble nowadays, it’s all perception and psychology. People leave the bubble as soon as they notice people are leaving as well.
But if your app is genuine and solves a great problem, there’s no reason for people to leave right?
What are your thoughts?
Like always, have fun and good luck. Please do let me know your thoughts.
Happy to connect through Twitter. Find me here.
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