On Friday three weeks ago, a few days after getting the invitation, I connected to my first ever Clubhouse room as a listener. As many thousands of users before me, I was excited and hooked after leaving the room.
On the next day, I spent the entire evening listening to various discussions, opening profiles of moderators, speakers, visitors and following a few dozen of my fellow clubhousers.
On Sunday, I had about fifteen different shows lined up for that evening and I kept listening and switching rooms till late.
At the end of this third, and enjoyable evening indeed, I started to plan what good Clubhouse could bring to our business and to me.
If I say I was ecstatic, I am very much downplaying my feelings at that moment. After spending a decade in the audio business, it felt like this was the platform I’d spent waiting for years! Until I saw through a fog of my initial excitement the following day.
What is Clubhouse?
Even though you most likely already know, let me sum up what Clubhouse is about.
Clubhouse is a new social network based on audio content only. Registered users can create so called rooms (look at them as chats in audio format) and use them to speak with other people. They can create the rooms as Closed, where only people they invite can enter, Social for all people they follow on the platform to join and Open, well, open for anybody on Clubhouse.
If you become a Clubhouse user, you can open a room at any given time for any topic you wish. Although, the most power users schedule and open their rooms at precise times. I’ll be talking more about this a bit later.
A user who starts a room is called a moderator. There can be one or more moderators for one room. The moderator not only starts but also fully manages the room. He can talk on his own, with the other moderators or invite any of the connected visitors on stage as speakers.
All room visitors are mere listeners with their microphones muted by default and only the room moderator can allow them talk, ask questions or kick off those who are trolling or misbehaving.
In terms of technology, the rooms are streamed online with no recording and replays available. If you want to listen or even take part, you have to be online at that specific time. Once the room ends, the show is over.
In short, the rooms are online audio conferences where some people talk, the rest of them listen, and the network allows nobody to record it for further use. Well, in the theory at least.
Influence, FOMO and instant fame
The idea of Clubhouse is great. No doubt about it.
People connecting from anywhere, tapping into discussions, talking about their views, creating their own discussions with no need for expensive gadgets (apart from a fairly new model of iPhone), complicated infrastructure or their own delivery platform to share such content.
We can now listen to celebrities from almost any fields. They are talking with little or no preparation in front of large audiences, sharing their ideas and opinions, answering our questions. The live-ness of the stream is one of the platform’s greatest benefit. And a drawback at the same time.
As the platform is invitation only at the moment, being a part of it feels like some sort of privilege. Among so many famous people attracted to Clubhouse by the hype, even ordinary people like us can now surf the waves and create a huge following pretty fast.
Building a kingdom on Clubhouse now is much easier than on any other social network. Before it gets swamped by millions of new users like any other platform before.
Influence, FOMO (fear of missing out), myriad of quickly baked connections and instant fame are the major drives behind Clubhouse now. Earlier mentioned social aspects have to catch up yet.
Is it a problem? Probably not. I believe it is a course of evolution of any new technology, product or platform. Actual problems or even flaws come next, though.
When prime time is prime
After a few days of using Clubhouse, I can’t catch up with all the invitations to join scheduled rooms.
The first problem I notice is that even though I only follow a few dozen people at the moment, I can’t possibly join all the rooms my clubhousers create. Doesn’t matter how much I wish to. I’d have to spend several hours a day listening to the conversations. That is not workable even during these pandemic times.
Clubhouse reminds me of the feel of radio. I can turn it on, listen to a discussion, and even try to call a moderator if I feel like doing so.
Instead of having 3 to 5 radio stations to choose from, Clubhouse offers me tens or even hundreds such stations already at the start of its existence.
The second problem I realise is even worse. The majority of the most interesting talks are scheduled by my clubhousers between 8pm and 10pm. In the prime time.
Radio stations and TV channels have a profound understanding of what it means to own the prime time. During these specific hours, they offer the best content available to make us, the listeners and viewers, choose them instead of someone else.
Clubhouse rooms are thus fighting not only with each other for our attention but also with radio and TV stations. And the bounty of distractions already available to us everywhere else.
Sure, Clubhouse is not HBO and not everyone has to rely on prime time. We have 24-hour days, so there is plenty of time to schedule a room for. Is there, though?
Compared to other social networks, only Clubhouse is forcing us to be present at the exact time. We either connect when the rooms are open or we miss it.
The novelty of the platform makes us do things we only do when something new and exciting appears in our life. Or when we can’t leave our homes. Eventually it wears off, though. How many of us can afford or even want to tune in to various discussions during work hours then?
Once our initial excitement fades away, the only time we will allow ourselves to spend on the platform will be those otherwise unproductive parts of the day, e.g. commuting. And the prime time.
Our prime time becomes the prime once again. Clubhouse will not only fight with TV channels, radio stations, cinemas, gigs and concerts but also with our need to spend time with family, friends and activities we love and enjoy.
That is, I believe, the fundamental flaw that makes Clubhouse only a short lived hype. Unless the platform inventors change their approach to the “live-ness” of the social network drastically.
Survival of the strongest
Let’s look at Clubhouse from the creators’ perspective.
In a world with only a few celebrities, everyone would have a chance to grab attention of the masses. What happens if there are more than just a few of them, though?
Imagine you write about marketing and decide to start a regular room on Wednesday at 8pm PST. At the same time Neil Patel or perhaps Gary Vee decide to do the same. The chance people interested in marketing following you are not following at least one of them is slim. Who do you think is going to win this attention war?
Sure, it is not only about popularity. If you make your room more interesting than the mentioned superstars, have better content or better guests, you win the Wednesday evening for now. Until a new competitor joins in to do everything to take your place.
As mentioned before, the live-ness is the greatest benefit and the drawback at the same time.
Only the strongest are going to survive the attention war. And there won’t be a lot of them.
Conclusion
While listening and talking to others is the most natural way of interaction for us, people, and has a great impact on our wellbeing, I believe Clubhouse is not the right way of doing so.
Unless Clubhouse changes the way of doing things, allowing people to record and replay the talks privately and on-demand, there is no scalability.
On the other hand, if Clubhouse allows users to record and listen to the room talks offline, there would be very little innovation involved. We’ll be back to — often much shorter and more focused audio shows — podcasts, webinars or virtual conferences — everything we already know from the past.
Even if Clubhouse remains nicely wrapped, easier to set up, launch or work with, unless there are additional features and benefits introduced, it won’t charm us for long.
