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"Clubhouse is a loophole for even more content consumption."

Clubhouse has become a new phenomenon of the Internet: in this article we figure out what is the reason for the popularity of the new social network, what are its prospects and how the interest in Clubhouse can be explained from the point of view of the theory of communications.

"Clubhouse is a loophole for even more content consumption."

History of creation
The Clubhouse social network is not even a year old - it was created in April 2020 by two Stanford alumni and former Google developers Paul Davison and Rogan Seth. Prior to that, Paul Davison worked at Pinterest, and Rogan Seth had a successful track record of starting his own business: in 2014, he launched Memry Labs, a mobile app and social media studio, which he sold to OpenDoor.

This social network remains closed - registration at Clubhouse is by invitation only. It is interesting that in Russian reality this "closeness" gave rise to speculation in the market (invites began to be sold on the Avito service. True, the site has already announced a ban on the sale of invitations). At the same time, in the past few weeks, Clubhouse has become a new Internet phenomenon: such celebrities as Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg announced that they had joined Clubhouse and even broadcast there on a variety of topics - any user of the social network can listen to them.

What it is
Clubhouse is a social network that focuses on live communication: communication is possible only in real time and only via audio. The social network is divided into "houses" according to interests and "rooms" where communication takes place. Each user can create a room and invite participants to it - at the same time, only those who are appointed as a speaker by the administrator can speak. Call recording is not possible - this is prohibited by the rules of the service. And one more important detail: so far the application is available only for iPhone users.

Theoretical framework
As part of the classes, Tatyana Sokolova, Associate Professor of the Department of Integrated Communications, together with fourth-year students analyzed Clubhouse through the prism of the diffusion of innovation theory.

Diffusion of innovation is a theory that seeks to explain how, why, and at what speed new ideas and technologies are spread across different cultures. The main idea of ​​this theory is that you can distinguish different groups of people depending on how they react to new ideas. According to the theory of diffusion of innovations, the rate of development of an innovation depends on the characteristics of people. If innovation is correct, perceived by the right people at the right time, then the rate of diffusion is higher.

The company creating the product should consider the following points:
  • The product must be truly innovative
  • The product, being new, must meet the needs of users and not contradict the current consumer behavior, that is, use channels familiar to the target audience
  • Innovation should be simple, simplifying user actions, bringing new experiences, etc.
Tatyana noted that Clubhouse works great in terms of diffusion of innovations: the platform uses the voice format as a transmitter of information - well known to the audience through voice messages and podcasts, communication in zoom. The channels are similar to the ones the consumer is used to: without Clubhouse, the consumer would also follow celebrities, the proximity to whom, possibly, gave rise to the hype around the application. At the same time, its innovativeness lies in the fact that there was no such proximity before. Now you can listen to a CEO of a company in real time in an unfamiliar environment - discussing something everyday.

Fear of missing out adds interest, and the exclusivity of registration (you cannot register without an invitation) creates speculation in the market.

Freedom of speech
One of the hallmarks of Clubhouse is the almost complete absence of censorship, because audio content is more difficult to administer than text or images. Because of this, in China, the platform became a platform for political discussions, which attracted the attention of the authorities - as a result, on February 8, the social network was blocked in the country.

In Russia, Vladimir Soloviev has become a significant figure of Clubhouse. His account was blocked as soon as he decided to take part in a conversation in one of the rooms - while the presenter did not have time to say almost anything. True, then the profile was unblocked and Vladimir Solovyov even managed to broadcast.

In addition, Elon Musk, on his Twitter profile, invited Vladimir Putin to join Clubhouse and have a chat - no response from the presidential press service to this invitation has yet been received.

Experience of our experts
Roman Nester (Nesterenko)

Professor, business curator of the master's program "Data-Driven Communications"

 

 “I saw people interesting in my topic there - and I got involved. Most of all it looks like a podcast, or an interesting panel section at a cool conference. It depends a lot on the moderators: some popular rooms are a hubbub, far-fetched jokes and an amateur level of questions to the celeb. But the most valuable thing is that there are no PR people, sales people and sales directors - while business founders are not too lazy to communicate.

 Most of all it looks like a podcast, or an interesting panel section at a cool conference. It depends a lot on the moderators really

Roman Nester (Nesterenko)
Professor, business curator of the master's program "Data-Driven Communications"

In three days, I brought my followers to 900 people. I started two regular rooms, where I invite everyone: “Nester and Kumar. Fuckup Night "and" Lunch Data".

Lyudmyla Zaporozhtseva

Professor at the School of Integrated Communications

 

“It was a predictable move: the trend in audio communication has long been noticeable. At first, everyone was surprised at the growth of podcasts and the request for audio content, then they began to record audio messages and realized that it was convenient, in the end Telegram created audio chats. Such a network was about to appear. In my opinion, this is also due to visual noise overload and an attempt to optimize content consumption while multitasking. 

 There has long been a noticeable trend in audio communication: at first, everyone was surprised at the growth of podcasts and the demand for audio content, then they began to record audio messages and realized that it was convenient, in the end, Telegram created audio chats. Such a network was about to appear

Lyudmyla Zaporozhtseva
Professor at the School of Integrated Communications

There is so much visual noise nowadays that people began to gradually "lose sight", important messages remain invisible, just fatigue from an overabundance of signals. Moreover there are many situations in which the visual channel is involved for routine actions (walking down the street, driving a car, washing dishes, sticking to pictures on Instagram, etc.), but you want to use time more and more efficiently, Clubhouse Is a loophole for even more ability to consume content."

Olga Logunova

Associate Professor at the School of Integrated Communications

 

We all know and use a whole range of digital platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, Amazon, AliBaba, Uber. Research on digital platforms focuses on the specifics of the eco-system, which affects the user's profile and content, in social networks in particular. And if we have long ago adapted to Instagram, and learned how to change the content for Twitter, then how to exist in Clubhouse is still unclear. It seems that everything is just like everywhere else - you create a profile, there is a photo and an opportunity to present yourself - but the content... It is specific due to its short-term nature, the possibility of immersing yourself in a conversation in parallel in another visual channel - such multiscreen has not been surprising for a long time, but the audio format of the social network makes people think about new formats of produced content.

Research on digital platforms focuses on the specifics of the eco-system, which affects the user's profile and content, in social networks in particular. And if we have long ago adapted to Instagram, and learned how to change the content for Twitter, then how to be in Clubhouse is still unclear

Olga Logunova
Associate Professor at the School of Integrated Communications

“Another feature of Clubhouse is the blurring of ordinary / extra-ordinary boundaries in the context of interaction with celebrities - here this edge is illusory precisely in the context of the opportunity to touch these “mythical” creatures, almost to touch them in new realities - to listen and possibly even ask a question.”

#INCOMMHSE at Clubhouse

22:00 on Thursday - “Nester and Kumar. Fuckup Night ”- Roman Nester makes a joint show with Roman Kumar (Qlean, QAcademy) about business failures. There were guests from startups, funds, large companies.

13:00 on Friday - “Data for Lunch” - Roman Nester talks about analytics with Maxim Godzi (product course at HSE, Retentioneering) and Alexei Nikushin (“Matemarketing”). You can join here, and you can listen to last week's conversation here.

18:00 on Sunday - "Job & the city: how can a student start a career?" - 4th year students of RiSO exchange stories of career victories and defeats. Tips from Nastya Gubanova (Mail.ru), Kirill Evdokimov (Novartis), Polina Sidorevich (Possible) and Katya Lisova (HSE University).

Join us!