Read on Twitter
I am starting to get tired with all the hype around Clubhouse, which bears the same hallmarks of other failed startups that grew solely because they allowed Important Tech People to communicate with other Important Tech People. https://twitter.com/alexeheath/status/1352804614257561602
I am old enough to remember Secret, a social app from 2014 where every post was anonymous, and part of your feed was pulled from your phone contacts (so you know if you knew the poster, but not who). Tech journalists *loved* covering Secret.
TechCrunch noted that as long as you "forget about the passive-aggressive personal attacks," it was a great place to hear Silicon Valley gossip. And it was! Because early users were in tech and posted about acquisition rumors and "$100 million mistakes."
https://techcrunch.com/2014/02/06/that-secret-app-is-becoming-silicon-valleys-new-blind-item/
https://techcrunch.com/2014/02/06/that-secret-app-is-becoming-silicon-valleys-new-blind-item/
But normal people didn't get the same value out of Secret, since they could already communicate anonymously in established communities that are broader than tech people talking to tech people.
So Secret died in 2015 after gaining 15 million users. https://medium.com/secret-den/sunset-bc18450478d5
So Secret died in 2015 after gaining 15 million users. https://medium.com/secret-den/sunset-bc18450478d5
Now Clubhouse is the new way for tech people to talk to tech people, so it gets praise for how it "enables a uniquely efficient form of social learning."
Even if it's just a way to eavesdrop on famous investors and celebrities talking to each other. https://divinations.every.to/p/inside-the-clubhouse
Even if it's just a way to eavesdrop on famous investors and celebrities talking to each other. https://divinations.every.to/p/inside-the-clubhouse
Clubhouse has the same problem as Secret: the network of early users are people who disproportionately drive conversations around technology (and investment in it). We don't even know whether people will use it after COVID, which predates Clubhouse's April 2020 launch.
And if Clubhouse is going to be successful despite being less full-featured Discord with an invite list, it's going to have to deal with some thorny moderation problems.
Clubhouse has harassment issues, and it's just now hiring two trust and safety employees.
Clubhouse has harassment issues, and it's just now hiring two trust and safety employees.
By contrast, Secret clone Whisper had 130 moderators in the Philippines half a year before it hit 10 million users. And they were moderating static posts after the fact, not addressing real-time harassment over voice. The latter is quite hard. https://gigaom.com/2014/08/08/meet-the-anonymous-app-police-fighting-bullies-and-porn-on-whisper-yik-yak-and-potentially-secret/
I'm not rooting for Clubhouse to fail. But I get annoyed at seeing the same cycles of hype around the same kinds of products in the Valley.
Maybe instead of creating VC voice chat, we could be solving larger social problems?
Maybe instead of creating VC voice chat, we could be solving larger social problems?
