Clubhouse's Android App Should Jumpstart Growth; Scaramucci on Creators

It’s not a stretch to call Clubhouse’s launch of its Android app a “critical milestone.” 

That’s how Snap founder Evan Spiegel in April described a juncture reached by Snapchat when it numbered more Android users than those on Apple’s iOS and at the same time, hit its highest quarterly growth rate in more than three years. Facebook for years has said more people access it on Android than other mobile operating systems. So for Clubhouse, which has spent its entire first year of existence only on iPhones, the new app should prove pivotal. 

A chance to target the more than 70% of global smartphone owners on Android handsets comes not a moment too soon for Clubhouse. The live audio app’s downloads plunged 66% in April compared to the prior month, according to recent data from Sensor Tower, which tracks mobile apps. The drop coincided with a dramatic easing of pandemic restrictions as more Americans got coronavirus vaccines, raising the specter that Clubhouse may have trouble retaining listeners when more normal life resumes. Now, even if the allure of a restaurant meal hives off some would-be listeners, the potential audience is just much, much bigger. 

Getting them to keep tuning in isn’t a given, however. Snapchat spent well over a year retooling its Android app after users complained about the app crashing and poor camera quality. It’s taken two years since the relaunch for Snap to announce the Android user milestone. Perhaps mindful of Snapchat’s past travails, Clubhouse founders are tip-toeing into the market by extending their invite-only strategy. “When you scale communities too quickly, things can break,” founders Paul Davison and Rohan Seth wrote in a blog post Sunday. They acknowledged fast growth early this year had taxed the iPhone app, causing server outages and notification failures. 

Despite hundreds of millions of funding that has made it a $4 billion-valuation company, Clubhouse has fewer resources than Snap did in 2019, when its market cap passed $15 billion. It will need to spend those to make sure the Android launch goes smoothly—and at the same time, improves the app for existing users. The more pressing issue, argues Rich Greenfield, a partner at research firm LightShed, is addressing poor experiences, such as coming in halfway through a conversation and not understanding what’s going on. “To me, the problem is not iOS vs. Android,” he said. “The problem is the product itself needs to evolve from what it is.”

Here’s what else is going on...

👂Overheard

“If you are working in a TikTok farm producing content for TikTok and it’s not appropriately accounted for in the Bureau of Labor Statistics is it a job or isn't it? The answer is that it is,” Anthony Scaramucci said on CNBC’s Squawk Box, referring to the disappointing April jobs report. Scaramucci said adjustments have to be made for the “new economy.” 

💰 Deals & Debuts

Blind, a San Francisco-based anonymous social network for professionals, raised a $37 million Series C funding round led by Mainstreet Investment, with participation from Cisco Investments and Pavilion Capital. It also announced a new chief product officer, Young Yuk, who held previous product roles at Intuit, Yelp and Glassdoor. 

#fypsounds, a Miami startup aiming to help creators monetize their music and original sounds on TikTok and Instagram, launched on Monday. It was previously in an invite-only beta mode. (“FYP” is the acronym for TikTok’s powerful For You Page, which serves up videos it thinks individual users will like based on their interests. For me, it’s a lot of comedy skits and dog videos.)

TikTok is quietly testing a new feature that allows creators to pay to boost their videos for the opportunity to gain more views, followers or website visits. A TikTok spokesperson said the test is not widely available yet. One TikToker walked through how to do it in a video. 

📈 Big Number: Hey!

YouTube crunched the numbers to figure out the most common phrases vloggers use to start their videos. The winner was “hey guys!” and made up 36% of the top five most popular greetings, according to the report, which analyzed more than 1 million videos that had at least 20,000 views and 20,000 subscribers. “Hi guys” was the fourth most popular. 

Video bloggers also open with “what’s up,” “all right” and “good morning.” “Hi everyone” looks like it’s “well on its way to oblivion,” YouTube said. 

✨ What’s That Trend✨

Photo dump: It refers to the practice of uploading a bunch of unrelated photos on Instagram in one post. About 320,000 Instagram posts have used the hashtag #photodump, although it’s often written without a hashtag in the caption. 

👀 What We’re Reading and Watching

• Etsy is working with creators to help attract new shoppers (CNBC)

• Elon Musk: Memelord or Meme Lifter? (New York Times)

• GLAAD finds top social media sites ‘categorically unsafe’ (Axios)

• State AGs add to warnings about Instagram’s plan for a kid-focused app (WSJ) 

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