Ayushi Mehta
Clubhouse, an invite only audio social media has finally gained over one million downloads on Android devices in India, which is by far the largest amount of Android downloads among all the countries. The app has 2.6 million downloads out of which one million are from India itself, as per the data given by analytics company- Sensor Tower.
The Android version for Clubhouse was launched on May 21, in India and has witnessed only upticks ever since, especially from the southern part of India where Indian Malayalis have shown great interest in the app.
On the other hand, the numbers of the iOS version of the app continues to decline all over the worls. In the month of May, the app had only 719,000 downloads globally, which were down by 22% than the previous month of May which had 922,000 downloads.
This increase in the number of downloads in India may be a possible effect of social media giant Facebook appointing Aarthi Ramamurthy as the executive, who is supposed to lead global markets and build communities for Clubhouse.
The country however, has yet not figured in the top 20 markets for the app, but with India dominating in the Android market for the company, the country will probably figure in the key strategy for Clubhouse in upcoming weeks.
A Calicut absed media professional said that the app Clubhouse has taken over and replaced Chayakkada, (tea stall discussions) a local app, that was common and was familiarized among the people before lockdown.
“Malayalis love discussions. With lockdown, people are moving online since the pandemic made physical discussions impossible. While Twitter Spaces offer similar options, Clubhouse is less distracting as a platform and they have embraced it,” he said.
According to the data from May 31, there were minimum 14 number of groups where debates and discussions on topics like starting YouTube channel, Cricket, Photography, Toxic Feminism, along with some controversial topics like ‘Do you believe in God and why?’ were being discussed in each room which had users commencing from 200 to over 500.
In another room where discussion for ‘Why only half an egg is used in egg puff’ was taking place on the Clubhouse app, there were nearly almost 2,000 people.
Nonetheless, the response that the app received on the potential success of the app in the upcoming months seems somehow mixed. While the application has been witnessing a rise in the downloads and new users signing up every day, it has yet to see if the sustainability of the app continues or its novelty wears off after a time.