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Clubhouse closes new round of funding that would value app at $4B
- ugh123 6y agoThis is the app with no Android version yet? Yep, no bubble here folks...
- xmprt 6y agoWhat do you mean? They're only missing out on 70% of the global mobile market share. Obviously when the capture that market they'll achieve their true value of $12B /s
- nightowl_games 6y agoI actually installed the original Android app off the playstore really early on. I tried it, didn't really get it and uninstalled. A few weeks later it kinda blew up and I heard it was iOS only. I was pretty sure I had installed the official version, so I downloaded my google data and found it in the JSON. I installed clubhouse on Android, off the playstore, the official app. Not sure why it's not available any more.
- ugh123 6y agoCan't tell it there's sarcasm there or not =) But I guess note was more around execution and new competitors cropping up around them and filling that huge gap and market share.
- jpalomaki 6y agoI wonder whats the iOS/Android marketshare in their current target group. I bet it's not 30/70.
- jaytaylor 6y agoI wonder if you were to always invest for the opposite of the sentiment of hacker news.. I bet you'd make a killing.
- clydethefrog 6y agoThe Yo app received 1.5 million in funding in 2014. This bubble has been experiencing exponential growth.
- nikolay 6y agoInvestors don't value their money, obviously. They just hope to hand over the hot potato and make a profit. And they don't even run on Android or the web.
- PostThisTooFast 6y agoThe bubble is back. People never learn.
- danielmarkbruce 6y agoThe folks at a16z, dst and tiger are very savvy, and there is nothing to suggest they don't value money.
- plumeria 6y agoOne must be cautious with authority bias though.
- villasv 6y agoParent commenter didn't say that a16z should be blindly trusted, just stated the obvious counterpoint that they're not ignorant as implied.
- loceng 6y agoAgreed - and it's LP money anyhow, a cut they take regardless of long-term success. If you can boost a brand to enough mind share, even if it costs you billions, then you have these golden eggs - even if they're hollow golden eggs - to show LPs what you're capable of; even though arguably a waste of money, it doesn't bother me if the LPs aren't large funds of the general population, the idea of such waste bothers me when it's people's investments that they're expecting or hoping to retire off of - there is such a delay and disconnect/misalignment between financial incentives though that the finance industrial complex has been able to get away with.
- danielmarkbruce 6y ago
- muppetman 6y agoEveryone these days: OMG who uses voice to communicate on the phone anymore? Keep up, Grandad. Those same people: OMG Social Audio is where it's at!
- neither_color 6y agoIsn’t this what Discord does? Or is this Discord for instagrammers/“cool people”?
- dcsan 6y agoDiscord is more of a channels metaphor than rooms. But actually discord just released a UI tweak to do a clubhouse like layout, so yes.
- cblconfederate 6y agothis is great. The brand recognition alone is probably worth it. Most people havent even used the app, but know that it exists, that's got to be worth a few $B, right?
- runawaybottle 6y agoThe most copyable idea ever. They are truly playing with fire here, and I’m curious how this ends. If they successfully dominate this space then it will be a case of people just ignoring their conquest. Not unlike Slack.
- jbpnoy6fifty 6y agoI like club house alot, I honesty think it can change the world for good.
- skinnymuch 6y agoDidnt every investor make money from Slack?
- danielmarkbruce 6y agoSlack got bought out for $27 billion...
- villasv 6y agoSocial networks have winner-takes-all effects and whoever comes first has a big advantage. Not saying it's a guaranteed win, but the advantage has value.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- 0xy 6y agoNo Android app, using off-the-shelf Chinese audio APIs, security disasters plural, opposite of a moat. Every single investor is going to be writing this off in 2 years when every other social network copies them more successfully and faster.
- CjHuber 6y agoIs anyone still using clubhouse?
- 0xy 6y agoScammers selling dropshipping courses and scammers selling bitcoin courses.
- jug 6y agoIt's funny, I thought interest/buzz in social media died down considerably the past month.
- rchaud 6y agoIt has. The only people I ever hear talking about Clubhouse on Twitter are influence-mongers and clout-chaser types. Clubhouse needs celebrities, otherwise it'll be inundated with marketing 'gurus', crypto scammers and 'channel your inner alpha male' types that the Internet is already filled to the brim with.
- grumpyautist 6y agoIf it wasn't for HN I'd have no idea it existed. I see 0 mention of it elsewhere on the web (that I spend time)
- rvz 6y agoa16z and the investor hype crowd are fast realising that Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Discord, and Telegram etc cloning the entire purpose of Clubhouse. Without an Android app in sight, they know they are losing so they begin tossing more cash onto an iOS-only private invite-only members app and value it at $4B. No wonder a16z is aggressively spamming notifications all over the place on there.
- jollybean 6y agoThis is getting out of hand. They had a pop-culture bump a few months ago, but are down since then. A $4B valuation with 'speculation / risk built in' means they really think it's worth $20-50B. FYI to those commenting that Twitter/FB will have the same features, I don't believe that this is the threat, as the specific nature of the experience matters as well as even the brand etc.. The 'risk' for Clubhouse is merely that the experience doesn't scale and is not interesting to most people, which I think will be the case. The number of this-is-how-I-got-rich-you-can-too rooms is just far too much. The most important limitation I see is that the ephemeral nature of the content means we can't 'let the good stuff come to the top' meaning - you have to sit and slog through the audio yourself to get to the nuggets. TikTok 'works' because they quickly move the uninteresting stuff to the background. And of course, without serious monetization, the big names who draw crowds will stay away, although that could change. This is short term but worth a look [1] [1] https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?geo=US&q=clubhouse https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?geo=US&q=clubhouse
- villasv 6y ago> A $4B valuation with 'speculation / risk built in' means they really think it's worth $20-50B. I may be out of the loop, but that's not* how I learned to valuate startups. On the contrary, the VC valuation I learned to calculate was usually a bit higher than expected market value.
- jollybean 6y agoYes, the 'market value' would also include the risk profile. Crudely, if there's a 75% chance something goes bust, then the value is only 25% of what it would be if it was going to be 100% successful. For growth companies, the likelihood of failure tends to be lower, but this company is in many ways still at 'seed stage' dynamics with no established base, business plan, revenue, still in a closed beta etc. etc. and a high likelihood of failing.
- villasv 6y agoThe rationale goes in the opposite direction. If investors led a funding round at a valuation of 4 Bn, that's already how much they think it's worth it and, in most cases, its market value is a bit less.
- nowherebeen 6y ago1 year old app is worth $4 billion.. is it really going to live up to its hype in the long run? They don’t even have a monetization strategy right now other than sending money to creators for free.. I must be one of those grandpas these kids talk about.
- clpm4j 6y agoa16z had such a big win with Coinbase that maybe they can afford to take a flyer on Clubhouse? Doesn't make sense to me, but I'm sure the partners at a16z are much smarter and more tuned in than I am.
- minikites 6y agoImagine if this money was put towards something useful, like basic research or the arts, instead of finding ever more ways to jam advertisements into as many sensory organs as possible as often as possible.