Mo money, mo problems
Startupflex #5
What’s up, it’s Enrico. I hope you are feeling super energetic to chase your dreams today!
Startup Flex is a weekly newsletter about tech, startups, and cool stuff.
Today, we brainstorm some monetization strategies for Clubhouse.
I feel blessed to live in these days.
In 40 years we’ll tell our grandchildren that we were there when Clubhouse was released and it was FREE!
Indeed, the founders of the app have announced that soon they will start experimenting with monetization options.
Before they release their official monetization strategy, I want to brainstorm with you few monetization ideas they could implement.
What really will make the difference in their monetization strategy is finding a way that will make monetize both the app and its creators.
I have ranked my suggestions based on the impact I believe they could bring.
More importantly, I am super curious to hear your opinion on this topic! Comment with all the monetization strategies that come to your mind. I will share all of them in the next newsletter!
Here we go:
1. The Substack card - aka premium content
Clubhousers that have gained momentum on the app could decide to limit certain rooms to premium subscribers. Today Substack does the same with its creators. They can decide which content is going to be for premium members and which content will be released for free. Clubhouse will earn a percentage of the earnings. For example, Substack currently takes 10% of the creator’s earnings.
I see this as one of the most sustainable models for three reasons:
It allows the host of the rooms to make money and therefore be incentivized in becoming a full-time creator for the app.
It can increase the quality of the rooms. Creators can reinvest the money in their content and upgrade always the quality.
It allows the creation of stronger communities. In Clubhouse the community of listeners makes the difference because they can interact in real-time.
Impact: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
2. The twitch card - aka donations
Twitch takes 50% of the fee that users pay when they subscribe to a streamer they like. The same model could be replicated by Clubhouse. Listeners can either make donations to the host or subscribe to their show. Clubhouse will earn a %.
Impact: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
3. The “raise the hand” card - aka pay to make questions
You are in a room with 5000 guests. Your hero is speaking and you want to ask so bad a question.
Guess what, you are not alone.
Hundreds of people are in your same situation and the guest has to choose who is gonna come on stage and speak. Tough choice.
Putting a price on questions should filter for quality, and should simplify for the host the choice of questions to ask. Indeed we suppose that by putting a price barrier only motivated people will want to ask questions.
The price of questions can vary with the importance of the host. Also, the price could be decided through a bid. If there is time only for 3 questions, the 3 highest bidders will have the chance of asking questions.
Clubhouse will share a %.
We could certainly discuss the ethics of this choice, but for now, I only want to brainstorm all the possible monetization strategies.
Also, I see this as a side revenue stream.
Impact: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
4. The radio card - aka ads during the show
Clubhouse is the radio 2.0 and like the original radio, it could start introducing ads break during shows. The host would have the opt-in choice to monetize the talk and therefore organize all the ad breaks.
It is an interesting strategy, but I would assume it could cost the abandonment of many listeners. We live in an attention economy and since there are so many interesting things online, if we take a break from a show and we start scrolling Instagram we may forget to come back to the show.
Impact: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
5. The freemium card - Pay per Show
The more time will pass, the more shows will be created on the app. We already see this trend where speakers create their “Late Night Show” on Clubhouse with a weekly or daily cadence.
Clubhouse could introduce a limited number of free subscriptions to the shows-
If you want to subscribe to more shows you will have to upgrade your account.
Impact: ⭐️⭐️
6. The Spotify card - aka vocal ads
Before entering a room, a vocal ad is shown to you. How can you avoid this annoying ad? By paying a subscription fee monthly.
Spotify does the same, however, I see two major hurdles:
Spotify displays ads quite frequently during a listening session. But on Clubhouse I could be joining a room for hours, without switching with other rooms and therefore the app would show me only one ad. Placing an ad over the talk would be detrimental to the experience in my opinion.
It may happen that I open Clubhouse and I join a random room just to check it out. If my interest in that room isn’t high enough, listening to an ad is the best way to lose my interest and me make leave the app.
Impact: ⭐️⭐️
7. The phone games card - aka display ads
Most of the free games on the app store display ads and they give you the possibility of eliminating ads by paying a premium.
Personally, I don’t think Clubhouse will ever consider this option because their UI and UX is one of the cleanest, and displaying ads could interfere with it. Also, users do not spend time much time looking at the screen while using the app.
Impact: ⭐️
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For today it’s all! Thanks so much for sticking until the end!
Have an outstanding day and keep being awesome! 🚀🦄
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But, we can still make it before mid-March!
Subscribe to be part of this goal and send this article to a friend who just joined Clubhouse!