Remember Amazon's Clubhouse Competitor? That's Okay - Neither Does Almost Anybody Else (techcrunch.com) 36
Amazon's Clubhouse rival, Amp, has struggled to get off the ground, documents shared with TechCrunch show. From the report: As part of the launch in March 2022, Amazon announced a slate of Amp-exclusive shows and programs, including from artists, radio hosts, sportscasters, culture writers and personalities like Nicki Minaj ("Queen Radio"), Tefi Pessoa and Guy Raz, among others. Amp launched on iOS, Amazon Alexa devices and the web in beta, only in the U.S. to start. Amazon was targeted at over 1 million monthly active users by the end of 2022, according to internal documents -- a tenth of Clubhouse's user base at its peak. But Amp never came close to achieving that milestone.
Amp, which had roughly 32,000 monthly active users as of the end of March 2022, was sitting just short of 200,000 monthly active users by late October. (A source tells TechCrunch that the number is hovering around 700,000 today.) From September 2022 to October 2022, monthly first-time iOS app installs declined precipitously from ~76,000 to ~43,000, internal documents show. And Amp encountered roadblocks on the engagement front, despite its lineup of high-profile content. Between September 2022 and October 2022, the number of hours users spent listening to Amp shows dipped 51% from a peak of around 183,000. Even without access to internal data, it's obvious that Amp isn't the most active of the live audio platforms cohort.
Amp, which had roughly 32,000 monthly active users as of the end of March 2022, was sitting just short of 200,000 monthly active users by late October. (A source tells TechCrunch that the number is hovering around 700,000 today.) From September 2022 to October 2022, monthly first-time iOS app installs declined precipitously from ~76,000 to ~43,000, internal documents show. And Amp encountered roadblocks on the engagement front, despite its lineup of high-profile content. Between September 2022 and October 2022, the number of hours users spent listening to Amp shows dipped 51% from a peak of around 183,000. Even without access to internal data, it's obvious that Amp isn't the most active of the live audio platforms cohort.
Rewind a bit and explain something else first (Score:5, Insightful)
What is "Clubhouse"?
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Wikipedia defines it as either:
The locker room or changing room for a sports team, which at the highest professional level also features eating and entertainment facilities
or:
A community centre, a public location where community members gather for group activities, social support, public information, and other purpose
Re: Rewind a bit and explain something else first (Score:2)
Also I thought Amp was a Google standard for websites.
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What is "Clubhouse"?
Something this 'article' is an ad for I guess. According to the summary it had 10 million monthly users "at its peak" so presumably it's declined since then, probably needs all the publicity it can get.
Re:Rewind a bit and explain something else first (Score:4, Insightful)
So nobody even knows the product this is a knockoff of?
Why would anyone care about a knockoff if they already don't give a fuck about the original. The actual article should be "Why did Amazon create a knockoff of something that nobody knows or cares about?"
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From what I've gathered, they think there's a niche in the market to be filled with the collapse of Hollywood and the legacy media. Sadly, they seem to be wrong. Gee, I wonder why?
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"Hey, there is a market that collapsed because it lost its users. Let's start a new market that caters to the same clients that don't exist anymore!"
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So back to the first square: What re the "black twitter spaces"?
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What is "Clubhouse"?
All I got from the title and first paragraph was that something called "Amazon's Clubhouse" had a competitor called "Amp", and I wasn't understanding anything.
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I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought this. I've no idea what this is a competitor to.
Re:Rewind a bit and explain something else first (Score:5, Informative)
Clubhouse is/was an audio-only social media site. That is, instead of posting photos or stories, you host a live stream. In principle it seems like a good idea - you can listen in to a conversation between some clever people, much like you might watch a panel discussion at a conference. Likewise, you might get someone telling you (podcast style) all about something you want to learn about - doing so live, perhaps responding to questions posted to them.
It was rolled out as an 'invite only' thing, which sort of worked in so much as it tended to get 'like minded' people together. However, it excluded a lot of people who might otherwise have contributed. It's not clear of course, but it's possible their attempt to gain some "urgency", "exclusivity" or whatever else from it was perhaps too heavy handed.
It also turns out that most of us are either just information consumers (so not contributors), or just not very good audio contributors. Unless you've got a good studio setup and decent audio gear, your live stream isn't very compelling just based on audio quality. Then, most of us aren't radio DJs, so our voices are perhaps a bit bland or hard to understand, and so again, otherwise great content wasn't listened to. It worked well enough during lockdowns. People had nothing much else to do, and so listening to something was a nice way to spend the extra time you had in your life. Once we got back into the real world, trying to listen in to a live stream whilst also driving to work, or taking a train proved to be unpopular, and possibly was usurped by podcasts and recordings.
Suffice to say, had Clubhouse been a google product, I think it's safe to say it'd have been killed off a year or two ago. It seems Amazon have more stomach for this sort of thing, but even they seem to need the publicity TFA affords them.
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That is 4 paragraphs more than this deserves.
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Next in the news, Wal-Mart's obscure knock-off of Buehler's isn't gaining much traction in the retail grocery market.
I was an early adopter (Score:3)
It really is an interesting idea. I got involved in early 2022. Playing licensed music and making some connections on the theme of musical interest was pretty fun.
What has happened is not that politics or other socially divisive themes became a problem. It's that it forms small cliques. That can still be fun (it was, but I eventually became bored of it) but doesn't form a business model.
They bring in celebrity hosts (called "creators" [eye roll]) but few stay long. Kevin Smith was a big get and he was promoted heavy. I'm not sure he lasted a month probably wondering what was the point.
Cool idea, but not a clear path of the end game. I'm surprised Amazon has kept it going given their RIFs in other revenue generating departments.
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It's Newspeak for "Reduction In Force" aka layoffs.
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Yeah, guilty as charged. I hate overuse of acronyms and jargon but didn't catch myself doing it there.
Expanding a bit more on my thought because I was very active in Amazon Amp and down to barely active, same as my experience with other social networks I've experienced.
In October 2022, they laid off half the Amp staff from 300 to 150. Any further layoffs, if any haven't made any news. Let's say it's 100 now (wild guess) and average cost per head is $125,000. I'm sure that estimate is low. Add in marketing c
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Wow your life must be awful.
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> Wow your life must be awful.
The more polite way to say that is "You don't like music? That seems rather odd, can you tell me more?"
But of course civility is extinct anymore.
(Yes I know markdown isn't a thing on Slashdot. I don't care. I was indicating quotes with > signs before the web existed.)
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Has google created anything at all in house after search that's made it?
They bought YouTube, android, docs, mail, and everything else I can think of that's made it. They killed countless other things they bought and killed every single in house project.
I'm not sure if waymo is in house or bought but is still effectively in beta so tbd.
I think their cloud service is internally created but not terribly successful. If it didn't have the full financial google might and brand behind it, it would've died years
Given that Clubhouse itself is foundering (Score:2)
It's not too surprising that third-party knockoffs are also having trouble.
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=club... [duckduckgo.com]
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Take your raging Ständer elsewhere - and also, your German sucks.
I barely remember ... (Score:2)
I vaguely remember Clubhouse (Score:4, Funny)
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