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I feel like Clubhouse fell bang in the "This is a feature, not a product" [1] hole and have simply not been able to get out of it, esp once other apps came up w

I feel like Clubhouse fell bang in the "This is a feature, not a product" [1] hole and have simply not been able to get out of it, esp once other apps came up with their own live-audio functionality (and given how Twitter and Clubhouse were very closely entwined, the launch of Twitter Spaces and Twitter pushing it quite aggressively was probably the nail in the coffin). Honestly though, I always felt like live audio was just a pandemic-era overhyped field[2] which still needs a few years in the sun before becoming ready for primetime, because the current implementations do not really bring anything fresh (or useful imo) to the table that other forms of communication don't bring with them (be it Youtube livestreams or podcasts or whatnot) [1] https://www.yannickoswald.com/post/the-hottest-question-in-venture-are-you-a-product-or-feature https://www.yannickoswald.com/post/the-hottest-question-in-v... [2] And it's not just limited to Clubhouse, but also region specific apps like Leher (https://leher.app/ https://leher.app/) which pivoted from social audio to some weird "do tasks to earn money" model

VWWHFSfQ 4y ago
When your primary means of user acquisition is via somebody else's social network then this will always happen. Clubhouse built a neat little feature and then tried to leverage Twitter to get people to use it. But then Twitter just built it themselves and took all the lunch money. This has happened numerous times. Another high-profile example was Meerkat/Periscope. The best you can hope for is to be acquired/acqui-hired by said social network a la Periscope. But that's very rare.
CydeWeys 4y ago
It's definitely a feature, not a product. I've listened to a few of the live discussions on Twitter between experts in the Ukraine War (e.g. Michael Kofman and Rob Lee were in it), and definitely found that worthwhile. It was, essentially, a live podcast, that took some live questions. So unlike some of the other commenters in this thread, I do think it has some value and isn't just for VCs' vanity, but it also just feels like a feature. I would never go out of my way to a site that only does this, but when I see a notification of a live stream when I'm already using Twitter, and the subject sounds interesting, I might join.
vishnugupta 4y ago
To be honest most of them start out as features. Their hope is to quickly add enough adjacent features, to retain users by keeping them engaged, surrounding an anchor use case before a competition rolls out their anchor use-case as a feature.

VWWHFSfQ 4y ago

When your primary means of user acquisition is via somebody else's social network then this will always happen. Clubhouse built a neat little feature and then tried to leverage Twitter to get people to use it. But then Twitter just built it themselves and took all the lunch money. This has happened numerous times. Another high-profile example was Meerkat/Periscope. The best you can hope for is to be acquired/acqui-hired by said social network a la Periscope. But that's very rare.

CydeWeys 4y ago

It's definitely a feature, not a product. I've listened to a few of the live discussions on Twitter between experts in the Ukraine War (e.g. Michael Kofman and Rob Lee were in it), and definitely found that worthwhile. It was, essentially, a live podcast, that took some live questions. So unlike some of the other commenters in this thread, I do think it has some value and isn't just for VCs' vanity, but it also just feels like a feature. I would never go out of my way to a site that only does this, but when I see a notification of a live stream when I'm already using Twitter, and the subject sounds interesting, I might join.

vishnugupta 4y ago

To be honest most of them start out as features. Their hope is to quickly add enough adjacent features, to retain users by keeping them engaged, surrounding an anchor use case before a competition rolls out their anchor use-case as a feature.