📡 FOMO, Clubhouse, FOMO, Android
Pulse #135 — Clubhouse caused a huge FOMO in early 2021; now is acting out of FOMO.
So the official Clubhouse for Android is out… It’s published on Google Play and is available in the US right now. If you need an invite, reply to this email or DM me on Twitter or Instagram and I’ll send you an invite…
Now, let’s dig a bit deeper — why now?
I wrote about Clubhouse and how FOMO is driving its growth almost 12 weeks ago. The invitation-only way of joining the platform was an extra layer of exclusivity on top of its being only available on iOS.
Now, add content ephemerality to the mix, and you’ll have the recipe for a FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) induced growth.
This caused a huge demand for the app (and, of course, a limited supply), and Clubhouse was quite slow to meet that demand. Also, I’m pretty sure they were expecting competition, especially from Facebook (which is really good at cloning features), and Twitter (which already had Twitter Spaces in the pipeline), they were not expecting the speed of competition and its width… Like when ‘Stories’ were hot and every app was adding the ‘Story’ feature to its product, now, drop-in audio-only chats are popping up everywhere.
The exclusivity that caused FOMO in the beginning due to a lack of competition, came back to hunt Clubhouse as the competition grew. The hype started to die down after downloads peaked in February (9.6 million downloads), and then fell to 2.7 million in March and then 900,000 downloads in April, according to Sensor Tower.
Now, with Twitter Spaces already available on Android and Facebook’s suite of audio features coming in, and no Elon Musk hyping Clubhouse, I think the team at Clubhouse didn’t have a choice but to launch Android — maybe even prematurely.
But as someone who’s rooting for Clubhouse to win in the audio space, I think the pressure that caused the Android launch can become an important win for them even if the app is not its best version or it’s not rolled out globally yet.
The fact that now there is an official Android version of Clubhouse (which people can download from elsewhere if they’re not in the US) can spark hope among everyone who felt left out with its being iOS-only up until now.
It’s like Clubhouse grew with causing FOMO, and then had to launch Android out of FOMO in market share… Better late than never; and hopefully, not too late!
That’s all for now — let’s connect on Clubhouse; it’s a lot of fun 😉
News
Dogecoin is crashing while Elon Musk is on Saturday Night Live [link]
SpaceX launches and lands a Falcon 9 rocket booster a record 10th time [link]
Why Facebook’s pissed at Apple, TMI for a PayPal Tip, and Apple’s App Store [link]
Tipping your favourite tweeters, Apple’s App Store in court, and more NTF news [link]
Twitter’s latest acquisitions, Trump’s judgement day, and Dogecoin [link]
Gates’ separation, Verizon’s failed acquisitions, and the Epic battle [link]
💊 a gift for you.
Worth Your Attention
The chip shortage is getting worse — read this piece on Bloomberg to understand why it is, and also why it’s not that easy to overcome it.
the most interesting part of it for me was the clean rooms used in chip production. a hospital operating theater is a super clean room with almost 10,000 particles in cubic meter of air… in chip manufacturing clean rooms, the number of particles in a cubic meter of air is 10 as individual transistors are many times smaller than a virus! And one speck of dust can cause havoc and millions of dollars of waste.
You can’t beat the algorithm — another great short piece by one of my favourite authors: Seth Godin. When a new medium shows up that allocates attention, someone comes out ahead…
building up on any social platform is like trying to build a skyscraper on a rented piece of land… you don’t own it. and with algorithms, it means that they decide who can see you… basically, like a gatekeeper… they have the upper hand…
Market-Making on the Internet — a great/different analysis of market-making on the web and where aggregators stand by Ben Thompson on Stratechery.
definitely worth a read; and also, listen to exponent podcast; it’s back on Spotify.
The inside story of TikTok’s tumultuous rise—and how it defeated Trump. It’s really good piece from Forbes.
just go read it…
Chart of the Week
More Than 1 in 4 Gen Zers Worldwide Follow Influencers on Social Media
Influencers are popular with members of Gen Z, according to a recent report from GWI. The report reveals that 28% of young adults (ages 16-23) across the globe follow influencers on social media.
Millennials aren’t far behind, with almost 1 in 4 (23% of) adults ages 24-37 following influencers.
Most influencer followers are following accounts or individuals who post content related to travel (62%), personal healthcare (58%) and fitness and exercise (52%). They’re also following accounts for DIY and home improvement (47%), fashion (46%), beauty (45%) and charities (33%).
read more on Marketing Charts.
& more stats
Less than four years after its initial release in March 2017, the Nintendo Switch has already sold almost 85 million units, putting it on track to surpass the Wii and become Nintendo’s most successful home console of all time. [link]
Deloitte’s digital media trends, 15th edition [link]
Tools & Apps
BrandBird: Brand your Twitter content uniquely
this is pretty cool!
Root Illustrations: Beautiful illustration constructor for websites & apps
Skribbl: A free collection of detailed hand-drawn illustrations
can come in handy…
Personal Websites: 100+ handpicked personal websites to get inspired
well, get inspired…
Spotted
Instagram keeps working on the “Reshare” sticker by adding a notice to inform users that to add a post to a story you need to use this sticker [link]
Instagram is working on two new options for sharing posts in Direct: “Call and watch together” and “Create group” [link]
Instagram continues to work on scheduled Live shows [link]
Instagram is working on the possibility of sending buttons to join native rooms instead of Messenger links [link]
Instagram is working on different styles for the gallery sticker, round or square corners [link]
A screenshot showing the “Schedule” option for Live that Instagram is working on [link]
Instagram is working on a new sticker: “Prompt” [link]
Instagram is working to show the draft message in the conversations list [link]
Twitter is finishing up the new Verification Request form [link]
🐦 Tweets of the Week
Fun Stuff
and now we’re done for this week
What did you think of this issue? Your feedback matters — more than you think!