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Ask HN: Will Clubhouse Survive?

8 points by lukasfischer 6y ago

I‘m wondering what you think.

awb 6y ago
Question is a little vague. What time period are you taking about? And buy survive do you mean not close?
- lukasfischer 6y ago
  I wanted to keep the question open. :-)
miguelrochefort 6y ago
Clubhouse is getting boring. It's filled with self-proclaimed life coaches, marketing gurus, Bitcoin maximalists, NFT shills, and armchair philosophers. All the other rooms are in foreign languages, probably talking about the same things. Stalking Lex Fridman and listening to Naval gets old. Elon Musk never shows up. Every room I start ends up getting filled with the above-mentioned populations. I'm not sure why I keep tuning in, but I don't suspect it will last. I know others feel the same way. Unless Clubhouse makes some obvious improvements, mainly letting users filter out specific keywords and languages, I suspect it won't survive mass-adoption.
- lukasfischer 6y ago
  I fully agree.
- EvanKRob 6y ago
  Yep this right here. I tried to start a niche room for my podcast listeners but had to jump through too many hoops. I think they can pivot into something useful but in its current form it doesnt’ have much value for me for all the reasons you’ve stated.
- billconan 6y ago
  It’s full of pretentious people trying to sell themselves. Not very nutritious to me.
- muzani 6y ago
  Exactly! Its selling point was that it had good conversations, but the bar has dropped drastically.
- cm2012 6y ago
  28 days ago I wrote "I am a strong sell on ClubHouse at a $2b valuation. Just like Medium and Quora, once the masses are allowed on, the noise will get too high and the signal will get lost." I, if anything, feel this stronger now.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
runawaybottle 6y ago
How is Clubhouse different from Discord? It’s just voice chat rooms right?
e-clinton 6y ago
Audio has taken off and I’m sure companies will figure out how to make billions off of it, but what they call innovation is boring to me. How about live-transcribe every conversation and allow me to subscribe to topics, so when someone is talking about a specific topic I can be alerted? How about automatic conversation summaries so the valuable pieces can be consumed more efficiently? I avoid podcast because there’s a lot of useless chit-chat which I just can’t be bothered with. I’d much rather read an article and the comment section.
- muzani 6y ago
  Same here. I think there's too much noise to signal. But the average talker wouldn't want their conversations written down so I doubt this will happen.
cloudking 6y ago
It's going to be tough considering the major players already cloned their service. Twitter: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-twitter-spaces-idUSKBN2B32ZT https://www.reuters.com/article/us-twitter-spaces-idUSKBN2B3... Facebook/IG: https://www.theverge.com/2021/2/10/22276645/facebook-clubhouse-social-audio-app-develop https://www.theverge.com/2021/2/10/22276645/facebook-clubhou... TikTok: https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-china-clubhouse-copycats-idUKKBN2AW0KY https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-china-clubhouse-copycats-...
luckman212 6y ago
They could probably survive indefinitely just by selling all that juicy personal data they pilfered when everyone granted the app full access to contacts.
- muzani 6y ago
  Contact data is a fairly cheap commodity these days.
sjg007 6y ago
Depends on their daily active user count. It could become a hybrid podcast platform etc... the interactivity is interesting. I'd expect them to get bought at some point. I mean twitter could build their own but it makes sense to buy the audience and early adopter enthusiasm. Take as an example, even with the TikTok clones tiktok is still on top.
radihuq 6y ago
I'm curious, do you think we'd be having this conversation today if they had released an Android app? This conversation is inevitable, but would it be happening sooner or later if Android users had access to Clubhouse?
Spooky23 6y ago
Only if Apple kills the podcast directory that powers that ecosystem.
Graffur 6y ago
I've never heard Clubhouse mentioned in real life. I suppose that means it has the opportunity to grow a lot more.
Ap0cryph0n 6y ago
Clubhouse is for normies. You can't expect them to produce great content.

8 points by lukasfischer 6y ago

I‘m wondering what you think.

awb 6y ago

Question is a little vague. What time period are you taking about? And buy survive do you mean not close?

lukasfischer 6y ago
I wanted to keep the question open. :-)

miguelrochefort 6y ago

Clubhouse is getting boring. It's filled with self-proclaimed life coaches, marketing gurus, Bitcoin maximalists, NFT shills, and armchair philosophers. All the other rooms are in foreign languages, probably talking about the same things. Stalking Lex Fridman and listening to Naval gets old. Elon Musk never shows up. Every room I start ends up getting filled with the above-mentioned populations. I'm not sure why I keep tuning in, but I don't suspect it will last. I know others feel the same way. Unless Clubhouse makes some obvious improvements, mainly letting users filter out specific keywords and languages, I suspect it won't survive mass-adoption.

lukasfischer 6y ago
I fully agree.
EvanKRob 6y ago
Yep this right here. I tried to start a niche room for my podcast listeners but had to jump through too many hoops. I think they can pivot into something useful but in its current form it doesnt’ have much value for me for all the reasons you’ve stated.
billconan 6y ago
It’s full of pretentious people trying to sell themselves. Not very nutritious to me.
muzani 6y ago
Exactly! Its selling point was that it had good conversations, but the bar has dropped drastically.
cm2012 6y ago
28 days ago I wrote "I am a strong sell on ClubHouse at a $2b valuation. Just like Medium and Quora, once the masses are allowed on, the noise will get too high and the signal will get lost." I, if anything, feel this stronger now.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

runawaybottle 6y ago

How is Clubhouse different from Discord? It’s just voice chat rooms right?

e-clinton 6y ago

Audio has taken off and I’m sure companies will figure out how to make billions off of it, but what they call innovation is boring to me. How about live-transcribe every conversation and allow me to subscribe to topics, so when someone is talking about a specific topic I can be alerted? How about automatic conversation summaries so the valuable pieces can be consumed more efficiently? I avoid podcast because there’s a lot of useless chit-chat which I just can’t be bothered with. I’d much rather read an article and the comment section.

muzani 6y ago
Same here. I think there's too much noise to signal. But the average talker wouldn't want their conversations written down so I doubt this will happen.

cloudking 6y ago

It's going to be tough considering the major players already cloned their service. Twitter: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-twitter-spaces-idUSKBN2B32ZT https://www.reuters.com/article/us-twitter-spaces-idUSKBN2B3... Facebook/IG: https://www.theverge.com/2021/2/10/22276645/facebook-clubhouse-social-audio-app-develop https://www.theverge.com/2021/2/10/22276645/facebook-clubhou... TikTok: https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-china-clubhouse-copycats-idUKKBN2AW0KY https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-china-clubhouse-copycats-...

luckman212 6y ago

They could probably survive indefinitely just by selling all that juicy personal data they pilfered when everyone granted the app full access to contacts.

muzani 6y ago
Contact data is a fairly cheap commodity these days.

sjg007 6y ago

Depends on their daily active user count. It could become a hybrid podcast platform etc... the interactivity is interesting. I'd expect them to get bought at some point. I mean twitter could build their own but it makes sense to buy the audience and early adopter enthusiasm. Take as an example, even with the TikTok clones tiktok is still on top.

radihuq 6y ago

I'm curious, do you think we'd be having this conversation today if they had released an Android app? This conversation is inevitable, but would it be happening sooner or later if Android users had access to Clubhouse?

Spooky23 6y ago

Only if Apple kills the podcast directory that powers that ecosystem.

Graffur 6y ago

I've never heard Clubhouse mentioned in real life. I suppose that means it has the opportunity to grow a lot more.

Ap0cryph0n 6y ago

Clubhouse is for normies. You can't expect them to produce great content.