The fast rise and epic fall of Clubhouse

"A new app called TikTok was ascendant, bringing a whole new kind of vertical video to phones everywhere. And another app - not as popular, but growing fast, and already hugely influential among the tech set - looked like it might have an entirely new social idea on its hands. It was called Clubhouse, and it was a huge bet that audio might be the future."

"On this episode of Version History, we tell the story of the early days of Clubhouse, and how a simple audio group chat app turned into a booming entertainment and creator platform. Platformer's Casey Newton and Bloomberg's Ashley Carman join David Pierce to talk about how the app worked, why tech folks gravitated to it so much, and ultimately the ways in which timing was the best and worst thing that ever happened to Clubhouse."

"What would the app have been without a global pandemic, and months of lockdown that left people scrambling for any kind of connection? We'll never know. But it would have been different."

Clubhouse emerged in 2020-2021 as a promising audio-based social platform that competed with TikTok's rise in the social media landscape. The app functioned as an audio group chat platform that evolved into an entertainment and creator platform, gaining significant traction particularly among tech professionals. Clubhouse's success was heavily influenced by pandemic lockdowns, which created urgent demand for connection and social interaction. The app's trajectory demonstrates how timing, both favorable and unfavorable, shaped its trajectory. While initially positioned as the future of social media and audio-based communication, Clubhouse ultimately failed to maintain its early momentum and influence in the competitive social media market.

Read at The Verge