Why Clubhouse is special & deserves its $1B valuation:
It’s a new social graph, the talk graph, where you follow different people than on Twitter or Insta. It’s a more personal, unscripted way to get to know public figures and peers you care about.
Off-camera = intimacy. 1/
Clubhouse’s huge session times for some users signal a sticky and satisfying experience that could grow into a mainstream behavior.
There are emergent cultures and native celebrities forming, from talk shows to musicals to open mics to business pitch practice to games shows. 2/
Clubhouse’s initial, constrained user base is aspirational for early adopters, similar to Facebook’s Ivy schools and Twitter’s literati.
It’s derisking, proving over 9 months that it’s not a fad, and won’t implode as soon as it expands beyond Silicon Valley. 3/
Clubhouse is embracing creators rather than ignoring them at first like most social apps.
And despite flare-ups, it’s tackling moderation earlier too. 15 years in, Twitter still struggles there.
With so much time spent per active user, it has PLENTY of monetization options. 4/
Clubhouse is just genuinely fun. I’ve made friends there. How many apps can you say that about? (Ask if you need an invite!)
TechCrunch chose the top 20 startups out of 200 from Y Combinator Demo Day. My picks? 1. Somatic - an autonomous bathroom cleaning robot. No way humans do this dirty job forever.
My #2 favorite startup from YC Demo Day?
Homestead - Converts your garage into an apartment for free and then splits the rental revenue with you. Lots of need for passive revenue streams in the coming recession
One more favorite startup I liked from YC Demo Day was FrogLabs - Weather forecasting AI to predict transportation/delivery slowdowns, sales slumps, & green energy production. Super valueable data.
Here's my line-by-line rebuttal of Jack Dorsey's subtweeted reasons he should still be CEO. 1. Twitter still doesn't label misinformation 3yrs after Fb started to techcrunch.com/2020/03/05/its…
2. Twitter's ads still feel totally skippable. Dorsey claims it's making a big push for mobile app install ads...7yrs after Facebook did that 🤦♂️Share price still down from 5yrs ago
3. Jack Dorsey killed Vine when it was on the cusp of becoming TikTok before TikTok. Cancelling a mobile video product in 2016 was unforgivably stupid, especially since his resource mismanagement was the cause
Instagram now lets you clean up your feed by revealing who you see most & interact with least
Instagram's unfollow suggestions make sure you don't clog your feed with courtesy or pity follows, or oversharers tcrn.ch/3bhIhxR
The denser the quality of your Instagram feed/Stories, the less likely you are to bounce, so the more ads you’ll see. Better user experience + more revenue = win techcrunch.com/2020/02/06/ins… tip @Techmeme
Facebook's 2019 expenses grew $47B, up 51% vs 2018. Content moderation & safety costs are strangling the golden goose
Facebook warns the world's sudden interest in privacy will hurt its ad targeting & revenue, even as user grow:
-GDPR & California's CCPA
-Anti-targeting in browsers, iOS, & Android
-Fb's own privacy tools (some mandated by FTC) techcrunch.com/2020/01/29/fac…