Source: statista.com
Did you know Clubhouse was first launched in March 2020?
Though the hype started sometime early 2021, the newly introduced online audio-only platform celebrated its first year anniversary. like most of you, I first heard about club house probably in January 2021, when Ellon Musk used it to interview Robinhood's CEO and it went all over the internet. But ever since, we started to see clubhouse rooms promoted in instagram, twitter and snapchat, and it became the go-to platform for business-informal type of discussions.
So what does the data say?
Here is what we know; Clubhouse is completing one year with 10M weekly active users while in private beta stage (invitation only). The greatest growth was between January and February with 400% rate, which is HUGE! It was Elon Musk's interview that started the peak, then more influencers joined the race. And the question is "how was clubhouse able to achieve such increase in a very short time? "
If you think about it, clubhouse had one of the most successful starts. Coincidence? not sure. I believe there are few elements that contributed to its success:
Exclusivity : The invite only approach made the new social network more attractive, it became more of a status. Though this approach is usually used during the beta stage to mange the platform users, it serves more as a marketing strategy, and it seems to be very successful!
The elite circle: Imagine that you can easily join a live session with Elon Musk or Oprah Winfrey FOR FREE! I wonder if Elon and Oprah got an invitation from friends though? Nevertheless, it is clear that clubhouse is creating a sense of "elite circle" not only due to the invitation-only approach but also the selective group of influencers, founders and celebrities joining the platform and actually using it.
Indirect promotion through other social network: The other day, I discovered a twitter account that shares clubhouse highlights and news. the wealth of social networks definitely make the expansion of newly introduced platform much faster and easier. let's take twitter as an example; back in 2006, people heard about it mainly through word of mouth.
The formal-informal sense of reality: Maybe it's the voice, maybe it's the live conversations, whatever it is, there is something about clubhouse that makes you comfortably feel that you are dealing with real people, which makes it more convincing. Unlike other platforms, I see it the least private kind of platform. It is not meant to share private discussions with close friends and family, but a platform to talk properly with foreigners, which gave it a great competitive advantage. People are using clubhouse in many different ways; pitching businesses, interviewing, educational sessions and much more.
The assumption is that clubhouse users will increase exponentially over the upcoming months, especially after introducing it for Android users (Smartphones running Android will hold 86.2% of the market by 2022 - Statista), and after the actual release -post beta stage- when the platform is available for everyone join. But I would be interested to see how the numbers will rise with the first two elements - exclusivity & elite group- eliminated from the equation.. would clubhouse still be that attractive? and for how long?
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