BENGALURU: In the rapidly evolving apps market in India, where Zoom fatigue (read virtual fatigue) has already set in, voice conversation apps are now testing waters with nearly 500 million Android users.
US-based Clubhouse, which saw 90,000 downloads from iOS users in India out of 14 million downloads globally, is set to launch on Android on Friday. Like its invite-only feature for iOS users, the audio chat app will follow the same pattern for Android users in India, which constitutes more than 95 per cent of the smartphone user base.
“Android rollout continues. Japan, Brazil & Russia coming Tuesday. Nigeria and India on Friday AM,” Clubhouse said in a tweet. The rolling out of the new feature will make it a complete app and over the next few weeks, it will collect feedback from the users for any concerns, the start-up said in a statement. Clubhouse is valued at $4 billion after fresh Series C funding.
However, Clubhouse has seen a steep decline in its downloads between February and April, 2021, data sourced from analytics firm Sensor Tower revealed. There has been a 90 per cent decline in monthly installs worldwide, while in India downloads fell from 42,000 in February to 14,000 in April.
Industry watchers, meanwhile, say that the start-up will face stiff competition from social media networks like Twitter, Facebook or even Microsoft’s LinkedIn which will announce voice conversation features in coming weeks. “Twitter and Facebook definitely have the advantage of a huge user base... But, when it comes to monetisation, apps like Clubhouse will be able to garner advertising revenue,” Faisal Kawoosa, Founder and CEO, TechArch told this publication.