Clubhouse: A hype-fueled gimmick or the future of events and podcasting?

Facebook wasn’t the first social network. Anyone remember Bebo? Google wasn’t the first search engine, either – how about acknowledging Ask Jeeves as a historical footnote? Even Amazon wasn’t the first ecommerce player; Boston Computer Exchange already had that honor back in 1982.

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But Clubhouse is the first audio chat app, and Twitter and Facebook are already building their own versions – as is tech entrepreneur and Shark Tank television star Mark Cuban with Fireside, not to mention the myriad equivalents in mainland China, where Clubhouse has already been blocked by the great firewall. (Note to Silicon Valley: Freeform dissent against the country’s communist regime cannot be tolerated.)

So is Clubhouse a hype-fueled gimmick, or a new model that will disrupt the tired events and podcasting industries? It certainly has the potential to become the latter. But then again, it could also quickly morph into the former.

In the last week, the app has witnessed a meteoric rise, thanks partly to cameo appearances by Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg on the platform, as well as funding from VC darling Andreessen Horowitz and the scarcity borne by its current invite-only status. I’ve heard people describe it over the last few days as “TikTok for grown ups,” “a never-ending Zoom webinar of blah,” “what Substack should be,” “a one-feature app,” and “the first social network in more than a decade that feels different.”

In truth, Clubhouse is probably a mix of all these things. It certainly has the type of A-list audience other apps can only dream of. I do wonder, though, how much bandwidth such time-poor masters of the universe will continue to put into it once the zeitgeist momentum begins to dwindle.

The temptation to click on the “leave quietly” option might well grow if people feel they are not getting value from the content. And the opportunity cost of devoting significant time to long-form events on a regular basis has to be present in the minds of participants. The room topics and content also seem somewhat patchy.

At times, Clubhouse can be truly brilliant. However, being on it is often reminiscent of that feeling of making the terrible mistake of attending the wrong party.

Some friends have told me they had to sit through hours of audio to get any gold. Conversely, others I know here in Asia have been getting up at silly o’clock, ready to jump into live sessions whenever their phones ping with an interesting Clubhouse notification from the United States. The reason? Because “the insights are just so raw and unfiltered that time zones cease to matter.” (For the record, I turned off my notifications less than a day after signing up. I found that life was already just too busy for that level of distraction.)

The famous investor – also a Shark Tank guest – Chris Sacca put it this way on Twitter: “I get why Clubhouse is special, I understand why some people spend a lot of time there, and I have no doubt it will continue after the pandemic. But as a parent of young kids who’s also trying to build a business, committing to long-form attention is just too hard for me.”

It came just when we are all stuck at home, thanks to Covid-19, and when the existing social networks have been deemed ‘not fit for purpose.’

Right now, Clubhouse is achingly cool. It survived its first scandal back in July, when VCs were named and shamed for suggesting that journalists had too much power to cancel powerful people, and it now wears the China ban as a badge of honor. It has the right audience, the right tone, and the right model at the right time.

In other words, it came just when we are all stuck at home, thanks to Covid-19, and when the existing social networks have been deemed “not fit for purpose” due to their toxicity and the amount of misinformation and trolling going on in them. However, is a solution for video-call fatigue or down-the-rabbit-hole social media addiction really an audio chat app?

That’s what I’ve been asking myself. Wouldn’t some family time, exercise, real-world socializing with friends, or just completely disconnected work be better for those particular pain points?