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Was Clubhouse Doomed By Its Early Success?
The early hype around Clubhouse caused competitors to pounce on its live-audio turf
Empty Subway Cars
There’s always a reason why a subway car is empty during rush hour. Always.
New York City has many rites of passage, like finding out the hard way the difference between an express and local train or falling asleep on the F and waking up in Coney Island. For the nocturnal set, another is waiting in line outside a club, only to find out that it’s empty when you finally get in. Which brings us to Clubhouse.
Clubhouse is a live audio app that launched on iOS in March 2020. It generated a lot of buzz during Covid-19 lockdowns, particularly with the Allbirds crowd. By May 2020, Clubhouse was valued at $100 million. Less than a year later, its valuation skyrocketed to $4 billion. High profile talks like an interview with Elon Musk, complete with a cameo from Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev, drew a large audiences and generated headlines. The product was initially invite-only and demand for invites was so hot that they began selling on eBay.
Things have since cooled off. According to Sensor Tower, Clubhouse monthly app downloads peaked at 9.6 million in February 2021 before plummeting to 922,000 in April 2021, a 90% drop:
The launch of an Android app resuscitated Clubhouse in May and June 2021, driven by downloads in India:
Both spikes in downloads were short-lived. In July of 2021, Clubhouse ended the waitlist and invite system and opened the app up to everyone. It’s unclear if the company will fare better than an empty club with a line outside. As of Saturday, August 14, Clubhouse was the 35th most popular social networking…
