The Battle for Audio Space Supremacy: Clubhouse, Spaces, Greenroom… who’s next?
How every social media giant is challenging each other in this new battlefield, giving them a run for their money!
The pandemic has brought about a new revolution in the tech industry, pushing the social media giants to graduate from text and media-based engagements to audio engagement. Looking at the trajectory of the evolution of the tech industry, social media has always followed a pattern of “cloning”: whatever product one company launches, others almost immediately launch similar products. Migrating from purely text-based conversations to incorporating photos/videos for communication, the social media giants have closely competed on such spaces, and today the audio space is no less! The pandemic has put social engagement behind bars and for these tech giants to perforate the audio space is a no-brainer. While Discord has already been doing it for years, with practically no viable competitor, the entry of Twitter Spaces, Clubhouse, and Spotify Greenroom has spiced up the battle, with Discord ignored considering it’s either way above the spectrum, or not even considered in the competition of “new” players.
The gaming community has a strong appetite for audio communication, which is fulfilled by Discord, along with proper game streaming facilities. Podcasts have existed for a while, but it is only a single-way communication. However, outside that, it’s difficult to pinpoint any audiophile communities, except those who enjoy audiobooks during their travel or exercise, since that has primarily been the main use-case of audio space. Given how the gaming community functions, the audio-based apps do not seem to target them. Therefore, the introduction of audio-only applications may not be targeting an existing audience, but rather “generate” a new audience to explore the potentials of audio-based engagement, which is unique given the timeline. All social media companies have evolved based on user-based demands for features, and the audio-only-based application doesn’t seem to rank that high on the wishlist. Hence, the big nosedive taken by these giants can result in either a hard fall or a successful splash, depending on how deep the water (market to exploit) is.
The introduction of apps like Twitter Spaces and Clubhouse has burst into the limelight with endorsement through tech celebrities, sportspeople, and celebrities. Provided how social media companies love to exploit the FOMO factor of today’s generation, the audio space has only cemented that fact with people flocking to these apps to explore a new way of engagement. Both Twitter Spaces and Clubhouse provide a strong sense of community-building with people of different interests coming on the app to engage on their favorite topics. Clubhouse users find the app to be a community-builder app instead of a social media app, which is a very fitting and encouraging description. The culture of Clubhouse is however limited by its “invite-only” nature and exclusivity to Apple products, till its Android version came only last month.
On the other hand, Twitter continued its “cloning” strategy, like Fleets, to bring us Twitter Spaces. It comes with a very huge advantage: no separate app. This is significant also because it has the jumpstart over Clubhouse and Spotify Greenroom as it already has a loyal fan base that just needs to migrate to Spaces from the same app. Twitter has the potential to leverage the existing tweet-based communities to audio space, without needing to attract users separately like Clubhouse and Greenroom. This means more opportunities to spread the word and drive engagement over time. However, the market still has no clear winner — more like a dead Cola war.
While Clubhouse has its ‘hallway’ for finding relevant rooms, Twitter Spaces shows you spaces to join based on who you follow, which must be already tailored as per your interests. Therefore, both have their own approach to help users find relevant audio rooms. With features similar to Clubhouse, the music-giant Spotify has too jumped on the battlefield with its Greenroom app (currently in beta), Though a bit buggy as of now, the speed with which Spotify entered this space shows the desire of Silicon Valley to grab any opportunity with both hands as early as possible. So many competitors, we should not be surprised to see Facebook, Google and Microsoft throw in their hats too in near future.
The next step for these audio-only apps can very well be to diversify across different backgrounds of people, promote engagements in different languages, and even possibly help preserve and connect endangered language speakers to keep their legacy alive. Audio surely has a better engaging experience than reading text, thanks to The Goldfish Effect due to the existing social media way of interaction. A lot of experts have used the audio space to spread important information regarding the pandemic, which is a lot more personalized way of passing information than say, reading a printed public announcement. The Valley is optimistic about the potentials of this space, and as of now, it remains to be seen if this idea booms into the NEXT BIG THING or quickly fades into the darkness with the eventual departure of Covid and an increase in in-person social engagements. While there’s no clear winner as of today, it surely promises one thing: the future is exciting with the stiff competition that every conglomerate brings with itself.
