Clubhouse is a Unicorn(?); Clubhouse Versus Podcasts; Monetization, Moderation, and Monopoly

Author: Ben Thompson (Stratechery) URL: https://stratechery.com/2021/clubhouse-is-a-unicorn-clubhouse-versus-podcasts-monetization-moderation-and-monopoly/ One-line: Why Clubhouse’s audio-first format opens a much larger attention space than visual social networks — and why its ease-of-use means it will likely produce far more audio content than the podcast ecosystem.

Key claims

• Clubhouse has confirmed it will introduce creator-monetization products — subscriptions, tipping, and ticket sales. #Digital Creators
• The product’s evolution is impressive, and the drive to establish a real network effect is both obvious and well-done.
• Being audio-based means Clubhouse’s total addressable attention space is much larger than visual-based alternatives — and not really competitive with existing social networks.
• The biggest barrier to podcasting is acquisition/discovery (hard for podcasters to acquire users, hard for listeners to find shows) — which is why media organizations should use text for user acquisition and podcasts for monetization. #Podcast
• Thanks to its ease-of-use, Clubhouse will likely produce far more audio content than the podcast ecosystem — making discovery and recommendation especially important. #Podcast

Notable quotes

Clubhouse has confirmed it will be introducing products to help creators on the platform get paid, including subscriptions, tipping and ticket sales.

The most obvious place to start when it comes to thinking about Clubhouse is the fact that it is audio-based. This has a few obvious implications, including the fact that it’s total addressable attention space (TaaS, and yes, I just made that up) is both much larger than visual-based alternatives, and also not really competitive with existing social networks.

Still, the biggest barrier to podcasting remains just how difficult it is, from a podcaster perspective, to acquire users, and, from a listener perspective, to find shows you are interested in; this is why I have advocated that media organizations take a wholistic approach to mediums, using text for user acquisition, and podcasts for monetization.

Clubhouse, thanks to its ease-of-use, will in the long run likely produce far more audio content than the podcast ecosystem. That makes the discovery and recommendation bits noted above particularly important.

Notes

• The drive to establish a real network effect is both obvious and well-done.

How it connects

• Clubhouse — the subject: audio-first social network building creator monetization and network effects.
• Network Effects — the moat Clubhouse is racing to establish.
• Digital Creators — the monetization surface (subscriptions, tipping, tickets).
• Ben Thompson / Stratechery — author and publication.