Even if you’re not into tech and social media like I am, you probably have already heard about Clubhouse, one of the hottest startups in silicon valley. The less-than-a-year old audio-only drop-in platform is having its moment, especially during the last seven days with Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Haruki Murakami, Lindsay Lohan, Serena Williams, Kim Dotcom, Zendaya, and others joining the app.
Last week, just after I published Pulse #122, Elon Musk tweeted [talk about timing, eh?]
In a few minutes, rooms were created to discuss Elon’s coming to Clubhouse, and rooms to talk about rooms that talked about Elon’s coming to Clubhouse. You can read about the whole evening here. Then later during the week, Zucks dropped by!
All courtesy of the husband-and-wife team of Sriram Krishnan and Aarthi Ramamurthy. Later tonight, they’ll have Jason Blum and BJ Novak on their show, Good Time, on Clubhouse!
There is a lot of scepticism around Clubhouse, many of them are valid, like the lack of moderation which can cause real difficulties with hate speech and racism, but based on what I’ve seen on the app, and the Clubhouse Townhalls, they’re being addressed.
After using the app for a couple of weeks, I think it’s a great platform, and just like any other social platform, your experience is mainly shaped by the people you’re surrounding yourself with and the rooms you decide to attend.
Also, unlike other apps and media, its many-to-many approach rather than just a broadcast model can be super interesting if used correctly.
I see a lot of potential beyond the current hype due to the whole new level of influencer marketing Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) is pulling off for Clubhouse.
Being valued over $1 billion in less than a year is quite an achievement, especially when you think about the fact that it’s iPhone-only, invite-only, with zero dollars in revenue at the same time, but a very silicon valley-friendly growth.
But what is it that makes Clubhouse so hot — at least for now? I think there are two sides to it:
FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) — at its best. Without having a record option, the conversions are “you had to be there” type of conversations. That fuels the urgency of the need to be there, and its being exclusive to iPhone users with invites, the hype is a lot more than if users could listen to them later — which usually either doesn’t happen or sometimes feels like work rather than play.
Quarantines and Lockdowns. With many people around the world being on lockdown and working from home, chiming in a conversation that’s happening in realtime is a lot easier than when you’re out at work or a cafe or shopping.
I’m curious to see if Clubhouse will pass the test of time when things go [back] to [probably a new] normal and we’re not stuck at home most of the time, every day of the week.
Another thing Clubhouse is after really early is to help creators monetise. Just earlier today, in their Townhall, the founders mentioned their plans for adding features like tipping, subscriptions and paid events to help creators monetise. And the fact that it’s a new platform without an overabundance of content, the opportunity to grow as a creator (anyone who hosts rooms) is very attractive to the [at least for now] average user (think people who joined Instagram in 2010 or Twitter in 2007)… it’s a land-grab.
These all make Clubhouse pretty exciting, and I think it’s on the path to become a big player in social media game; even if TwitterSpaces take off.
if you’re on Clubhouse, come and let’s hangout — i’m @behrouz there (they don’t have a webview yet, so I can’t share a link!)
if you’re not and want an invite, reach out to me on twitter; i still have a couple.
Now, let’s go through this Pulse.
News
Visa is launching an API that will allow every bank customer to offer Bitcoin through their existing services [link]
A German man is keeping $60 million in bitcoin from police by never revealing his password [link]
Section 230, Snap backing Apple, and Zucks on Clubhouse [link]
Apple’s headset, Microsoft’s bet, Trump’s effect on Twitter [link]
More on Apple Car, More of SolarWinds, and Netflix’s Golden Globe nominations [link]
Jeff Bezos is stepping down as Amazon’s CEO, Amazon & Alphabet’s earnings, and Instagram’s new features [link]
Face ID and mask problem solved, Ford cars on Android, and more SolarWinds [link]
Triple 🔥: Elon, Clubhouse, Robinhood [link]
🏡 a gift for you.
🧠 and another gift for you!
Worth Your Attention
Looking at tech companies to see how they have designed their products seem like an innocent way of getting inspired, right? Like when you have an idea and you see something on your favourite app and you think “oh, this is the sort of design I want for my app.”
Well, think again. You might not be allowed to use it!
“Just as inventions have their own patents and rights, so do designs, and tech companies are good at protecting their work. Almost all parts of the Netflix carousel — the hover, the expansion — are patented work.”
In this post and this post, Christie Tang, explores the UI/UX patterns you literally cannot use.
Chart of the Week
e-Commerce Stats for Individuals in the EU
In 2020, it is estimated that more than 7 out of 10 internet users from the 12 months prior to the survey made online purchases in the same period.
Overall, the share of e-shoppers among internet users is growing, with the highest proportions found in both age groups 16-24 and 25-54 (each 78 %).
72 % of internet users in the EU shopped online in 2020.
In 2020, 46 % of e-buyers made purchases for an amount between 100 to less than EUR 500 in the last 3 months before the survey.
Read more on Eurostat.
there’s a lot to go through in the report. highly recommended.
& more stats
The digital games and interactive media industry grew by 12% year-over-year in 2020, representing revenue of $139.9 billion [link]
Switch on track to become Nintendo's greatest hit, having sold 80 million units in less than four years after its initial release in March 2017 [link]
Telegram was the most downloaded non-gaming app worldwide for January 2021 with more than 63 million installs, 3.8 times its downloads in January 2020. (🇮🇳 24%, 🇮🇩 10%) [link]
Tools & Apps
ThreadMaker: Create Twitter threads with long text, even blog posts 🧵
FreezingCam: Freeze your webcam during video calls
Otter.ai: Transcribe and caption Google Meet in real-time [Chrome/Brave extension]
my.new: Create shortened URLs to perform tasks for you quicker
Glide: Create mobile apps from Google Sheets
Spotted
Instagram is working on the possibility of blocking multiple people at the same time [link]
Twitter is working on the possibility of sharing a screenshot of the tweet when sharing it on WhatsApp [link]
Meanwhile on Twitter
Ideas from around the WWW
that’s all for today
What did you think of this issue?