ClubhouseTea #005: Modern Tower of Babel Meets Pandora's Box: Localization, Globalization, and All In Between
Clubhouse is growing exponentially, but the platform's ascent comes into conflict and under fire. Do they build the Tower of Babel, Pandora's Box, or both?
Welcome to ClubhouseTea ~ where the tea is steaming and the vibes are intriguing, as always 🍵
Cultural snapshot - we’re in week five and it’s the beginning of February ~
Clubhouse Town Hall notes will be included in this issue
Clubhouse vs. Clubhouse (social audio platform v. project management software)
First week where the town hall format elapsed more than 5K+ attendees, several spillover rooms for the Town Hall spawned in the hallway
“If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”
New International Version Bible, 2011, Genesis 11: 6-7
We have innately heard given accounts of hubris very often that the remnants of its theme continue to strike a chord within us whether it is the biblical example of Man conspiring against God, the literary example of Greek mythology that details the fall of Icarus, or the historical example of Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini executed near the conclusion of WWII. Not that Clubhouse abashedly sticks out like a sore thumb, as a symbol of that hubris, but the social audio platform’s growth is one of haste and one that has to deliberate whether the platform’s product roadmap aligns with localization or social cohesion by way of globalization.
It has been notable from the Clubhouse team that they work towards scaling intimacy and performance, as evident of careful detail strewn onto product features such as social rooms; these conversations hinge on the down-to-earth ambience provided by the company of mutuals. However, their journey in scaling intimacy and performance have been costly and a questionable one, as the risks from their exponential growth include privacy violations, trademark dilution, and criticism on their Trust and Safety protocol.
It’s a wild goose chase and while the prospects of this goose chase have yielded such polarization from different users on Clubhouse and on the outside periphery… there remains an interesting viewpoint for the future of Clubhouse. Their product roadmap, in the midst of a globalized thought leadership on the platform, might be the first drastic and disruptive step towards an application that feels akin to a contemporary Tower of Babel.
We have seen brief interactions and the cultural snapshot on the platform in the past few weeks reflect a double-edged sword of division and unity; people of foreign communities all over the world have stepped past the threshold that was limited due to localization and are able to find more access in diverse thought from people of different languages. It is difficult not to feel nosy about what topics of interest might be out there, but not in English.
Back in mid-January, the co-founder of Clubhouse, Paul Davison, had spoken in abstract at a Clubhouse Town Hall about a potential product feature that would help facilitate conversations with people on Clubhouse that do not speak their primary language. The use of an instant universal translator would grant easier accessibility to the global Clubhouse audience base.
There hasn’t been a provided solution or at least an attempt to provide real-time audio transcription natively on the app, but the fact that we are able to communicate more intimately within diaspora overseas than we would have been able via social media is nothing but game-changing. It’s not unreasonable to suggest that some users on the platform are now getting clued into the breadth of diverse thought leadership found that isn’t communicated in English. The prospects of communication have been echoed by actions that not only favor different content on the app such as topics of diaspora and upbringing but also seek methods to be able to unravel the conversation further whether it’s rooted in learning languages on Clubhouse or simply transcribing entire conversations using a second device equipped with Google Translate.
Cultural Snapshot - Week Five (Primary Happenings)
The Mainland Chinese Clubhouse Entrance
This week, Clubhouse saw the first users from mainland China. There were several of these primarily Chinese-speaking rooms that populated on the hallway. According to the Financial Times, polarizing discussion topics tested the waters as the conversation glossed over Hong Kong, Xinjiang detention camps, treatment of Uighur Muslims, and Taiwan. Chinese-speaking rooms are building the bridge between countries and providing rare context that isn’t usually presented in dialogue. In addition, people are using the app for recreational purposes. For example, the Superbowl watch party for Chinese-speaking users had over 447 participants enjoying the American sport.
There is one lingering question: when will China move to ban Clubhouse?
Considering that the platform could allow for the spread of anti-CCP content and cultural exchange between philosophies of Western and Chinese ideologies, the government is bound to respond. Additionally, the parent company behind Clubhouse (Alpha Exploration Co) had been built out on public infrastructure from Agora’s toolkit. Agora is a Cayman Islands PaaS (platform-as-a-service) company with subsidiary bases in Hong Kong and China and has been described as a “perfect launchpad for real-time communication applications”. The possibilities with Agora enable immersive virtual interaction via infrastructure for scalable, cost-effective, and simple solutions to embed video, voice, and messaging functions onto apps and devices on the cloud.
It is unclear whether the nation will officially ban the app, as it could be in the state’s interest to utilize the platform for an opportunity of surveillance on Silicon Valley. However, it would not be a surprise that Clubhouse could be banned in a moment’s notice and require a VPN to bypass it.
Clubhouse GDPR
The first week that German Clubhouse was onboarded was the same week that conversations about privacy violations of GDPR became a spotlight topic. And in a turn of events, Austria has cracked down on Clubhouse for violating the EU’s General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) policy. In a tweet by Klaus Muller, the Executive Director of the Federation of German Consumer Organizations, CH was accused of violating the rules on multiple levels. There is no “Impressum”— or legal notice that tells users how their data utilized, and the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy are only in English. Additionally, Clubhouse’s requirement for individuals to connect their contacts to the app violates the data protection rules.
As a result, Clubhouse will need to translate their documents (especially as the app goes global), create a visible legal notice, and change their address book policy. If they do not, the app could face a cease-and-desist order and face legal action from the German agency. The legal ramifications within the European Union as well as other countries with data protection regulation for consumers could be staggering.
Clubhouse vs. Clubhouse
The viral popularity of social audio app Clubhouse has been riddled in constanct confusion when it comes to identifying the social app platform versus the product management software, Clubhouse, that had launched in 2016. The product management software has seen a lot of misplaced outrage from those outside of Clubhouse looking in as people have left one-star rating reviews on the Google Play store, confusing the project management software with the social app experience. Things have been blatantly so chaotic that the founder of Clubhouse (the project management software) Kurt Schrader had to pull their app from the Play Store to prevent review brigading of their product, in response to the Elon Musk CH interview on Sriram’s Good Time. The product management software’s website has a specific landing page that specifies the differentiation between their product and the social app Clubhouse.
Personally, I cannot help but find this predicament to be embarassing and a clear conflict of what happens when two products are mired in trademark dilution. While there is currently no clear conflict resolution from these two apps, Clubhouse user and technology industry analyst Jeremiah Owyang made a diagram that exemplifies the difference.
Asian Clubhouse vs. David Markovich
From a casual non-Clubhouse user looking from the outside in, the first question that may be elicited would probably be: “Who the hell is David Markovich?”
Many users like @noahreservation on Twitter tweeted a simple statement similar to that, asking for context or criticizing the actions of this one man who tried to take advantage of the Asian community to growth hack his social following on Clubhouse.
Former Clubhouse user David Markovich opened a room called “Let’s all Welcome China and Japan to Clubhouse,” meant to onboard newer Asian Clubhouse members that recently joined onto the platform. Many of those onboarded and on the speaker stage did not speak English as their first language. And as the sole moderator of that room, Markovich designated himself the sole authority in that room even though this man did not speak Chinese or Japanese. He also could not identify as somebody of the Asian diaspora. There was no communication in regards to onboarding new members of the Asian community with any existing users that were from that community. Throughout the early duration of this room, he would butcher names of Asian users on stage whose names sounded foreign to him and kept the conversation very outer level.
Eventually, this led onto created rooms that addressed the performative nature of David Markovich’s room with one being titled “Why is David Markovich moderating a room dedicated to Asians?” And from there, one user that was brought up onto the stage decided to welcome the newer users in Chinese and direct them to different rooms where they could be onboarded in their native language and all hell proceeded to break loose as Markovich had a complete meltdown. He then accused the user speaking in Chinese that he was hijacking the room he had set up and aggressively asked him to revert back to English. The outburst then turned into quick gaslighting and aggressive bullying towards this perceived challenger and from there, it was indicatively clear that these several response rooms would address David Markovich’s racial microaggressions and privilege along with his meltdown and in different languages including Japanese, Chinese, Cantonese, Korean.
He would organize a room called “Ask David Anything” and in response to the outspoken criticism asked the Asian community on Clubhouse to enter his room instead of the opposite due to him receiving numerous blocks on his profile, which prevented him from entering the room. He also felt threatened by the fact that there were fifteen Asian moderators on stage, which he presumed would prevent him from making his case. The outrageous events that night would lead to David Markovich getting suspended from Clubhouse and his admin privileges on Talk Club being revoked as a result of his outburst.
This wasn’t an isolated incident as Markovich’s past problematic behavior had extended to the Jewish community as well as the Black community on Clubhouse, from reports of him bullying other Clubhouse users and even claiming to Jewish users that he has never personally witnessed anti-Semitism on the platform and justified that it did not exist because of his lived experience. Reports of alleged harassment from David Markovich on Clubhouse users outside of their socials such as Twitter and Instagram became part of the narrative as well.
There’s also an article on NextShark about the incident.
Cultural Snapshot - Week Five (Ancillary Happenings)
Various celebrities and influential figures joined Clubhouse this week, including conversations from Kim Dotcom, Lindsey Lohan, Takashi Murakami, Serena Williams, Vlad Tenev, and Mark Zuckerberg. Some of these special guest appearances were designated as part of recurring events like Vlad Tenev’s cameo in Felicia Horowitz’s Virtual Dinner Party where he discussed decentralized finance or one-off events like the impromptu welcome room for Serena Williams set up by husband and Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian.
The Playlist Club on Clubhouse hosted Maureen “Ma Dukes” Yancey’s (J Dilla’s mom) AMA in celebration of Dilla Fest. Over 1K+ fans from all over the world came to listen in on shared lived experiences from artists and industry figures that knew J Dilla and then were able to raise their hand from the audience to ask questions that ranged from parenthood to musical upbringing of JD
Black History Month started out on Clubhouse with a great community production of Raisin In The Sun as well as a moderated discussion in which Clubhouse user Noelle Chestnut Whitmore interviewed actor Zendaya and Malcolm & Marie director Sam Levinson about the M&M film. From our understanding, this was a collaborative partnership between Noelle Chestnut Whitmore and the Strong Black Lead, a diversity program helmed by Black creative executives at Netflix, to help promote the film Malcolm & Marie
American conservative political consultant, convicted felon and lobbyist Roger Stone recently joined Clubhouse (only a matter of time till we see an overblown AMA on Clubhouse from Former U.S. President Donald Trump) 🙃🙃
In light of the recent string of racially-motivated attacks nationally against those of Asian descent in the USA, there was a room created called “Conversation about Acts of Hate towards Asian Americans” hosted by actor Daniel Dae Kim. He was joined on stage by actor Daniel Wu, Tammy W Cho, creator of the #HATEISAVIRUS movement, and the founder of Nextshark, Benny Luo. Over 2.7K+ people attended the conversation and tuned into serious discussion about what’s being done to protect the Asian population in the light of this.
Missed the Clubhouse Town Hall last Sunday?
Here’s an outline:
On the first Clubhouse Town Hall of February (2.07.21), Paul Davison and Rohan Seth discussed what’s up with Clubhouse and Stephanie Saffa Simon becomes a regular on these town hall formatted meetings by giving a cultural recap prior to shipped updates and the subsequent Q&A. Let’s dive into it:
What we shipped
No release this coming week and there was no release this week because of performance and scaling focus
Release happening in two weeks
What we’re shipping in the near future:
Calendar is a bit out of control, will be addressed
Update for performance and scaling, with auxillary support for localization
Separate event listings categorizations specific to users vs. clubs
Clubs possibly to show past event listings hosted (will require some more thought); update to be included in the next wave
Language filtering to be included
Update to rooms then to profiles and clubs (link sharing)
Better support for one-off events
Room recall, pinning rooms
hyla working on a document that details how to stream hi-quality audio and etc
Recording permissions and automation not yet built in the in-app experience
Green room feature, when you start the event, initially built as a private room feature to be opened up (waiting for co-hosts to show up)
Increasing the 5K limit to infinity and beyond (slow progression start to big audiences)
Pre rooms, post rooms (building out breakout room possibilities in the user experience)
Room size capping feature
Scaling intimacy = absolutely integral for Clubhouse
Building out discovery team, engineers, and designers
Option to accept or refuse a mod badge will be built in for the near future
Muting the conversation without leaving it? They’re not going to enable that, possibly will thrust in confusion on different classes of “muting”
Paid rooms, paid room support, tipping, sponsored rooms
Should tipping be exposed or private for individual user visibility? Tipping to a room or specific user? Tipping visible atm for creator or after a room ends? Tipping as a product feature turned on and off?
Certain mechanics to be deliberated in tipping for implementation
Release in two weeks will address first wave of changes related to accessibility
Q: What are the rules for brands hosting and partnering conversations?
A: Clubhouse is for people, user-centric and real faces above anything else. All creators on the app should be facilitating collaborations with official spokespeople for the brand with a possible club integration from the brand or third party. If brands want to start clubs and have people host their rooms, it would be a very pro-creator thing to do