The euphoria for Clubhouse seems to be waning. The ephemeral audio social network, which became a success at the end of 2020, has registered a sharp drop in the number of monthly downloads .
According to Business Insider, Clubhouse registered 922,000 downloads last April worldwide. This is a drop of 66% in relation to the 2.7 million downloads in March .
The decrease becomes even more remarkable compared to the 9.6 million downloads it had reached in February , figures that were enough for Twitter to evaluate the purchase of Clubhouse 4,000 million dollars.
The analysis company Sensor Tower ensures that, although user growth has decreased in recent months, user retention remains high . This means that many of those who installed it have not removed it.
However, the significant drop in the number of downloads can be a worrying data for this social network that is taking its first steps, and that he still has a long way to go.
Is the success of Clubhouse short-lived?
The social network must face several challenges. One of them is to maintain its appeal in the midst of strong bets from the competition with very similar proposals.
In recent months, companies such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Reddit, Telegram and even Spotify have introduced their own live audio platforms, which seek to imitate, in one way or another, the operation of the Clubhouse.
The social network has tried to capture the attention of users with a Tip function , a Patreon-style program so that content creators can receive benefits, and thus keep them within the application.
Despite the fact that Clubhouse has been a pioneer in ephemeral audio, the Internet giants could be hot on its heels . Twitter has increased the availability of its Audio Spaces platform, whose application is available for iOS and Android.
Clubhouse, for its part, still continues with its invitation access system and its app limited, for now, to iOS. However, it has recently released a beta version for Android.
Driven by an aura of exclusivity and by some of the most influential people in the world such as Elon Musk, Oprah Winfrey and Kanye West, Clubhouse generated interest in much of the world.
Due to this initial fame, according to the Financial Times, risk investors came to value Clubhouse at more than 1,000 million dollars , a surprising figure for not having a clear business model and now less interested users.
