Clubhouse
Audio social rooms went from $4B valuation to irrelevance in 2 years after Twitter Spaces and Spotify Live copied the format.
2020 → 2024
$110M
Social Media/Audio
USA
IdeaProof AI Failure Score
What Happened: The Timeline
2020
Clubhouse launches as invite-only audio app
Jan 2021
Explodes in popularity, Elon Musk joins a room
Apr 2021
Valued at $4B, raises $110M from a16z
Mid 2021
Twitter Spaces, Spotify Live copy the format
2024
Under 500K weekly users, effectively dead
Root Causes
Clubhouse was the hottest app of 2021 — invite-only audio rooms where celebrities, VCs, and tech leaders held live conversations. Valued at $4B, the app had 10M+ weekly users. But Twitter launched Spaces, Spotify launched Live, and Facebook/LinkedIn added audio features. When Clubhouse removed its invite-only model and opened to everyone, the exclusivity that drove its appeal vanished. By 2024, the app had fewer than 500K weekly users and most of its team had left.
Sources & References
Could This Failure Have Been Prevented?
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