Whether it’s gaming, short form videos or video conferencing, Facebook will want a piece of that pie. This often involves the company developing a clone of an app that has popularised the aforementioned categories in order to compete with it. This time around, Facebook is reportedly throwing its hat in the ring to go against the up-and-coming Clubhouse app by creating its own invite-only voice chat platform.
According to The New York Times (NYT), citing people who are familiar with the matter, employees of the social media giant have been instructed to develop a product similar to Clubhouse. The people added that the potential new app by Facebook is known internally as Fireside, but not much else about it has been revealed at this time.
“We’ve been connecting people through audio and video technologies for many years and are always exploring new ways to improve that experience for people,” a Facebook spokeswoman told NYT. In addition, the company is always experimenting but currently does not have anything new to announce, she added.
Also not disregarding the potential business opportunities (and data gathering) these companies could obtain by launching their own version. As demonstrated by Clubhouse, users as well as key figures utilise the platform to discuss opinions and give talks, which in return greatly raises traffic and attention. Adding to that is the app’s one-time and invite-only sense of exclusivity for every topic discussed, which is great for seminars or press conferences. Realising these points, its without a doubt that other potential competitors would want to hop onto the bandwagon as well.
Whether companies such as Facebook and Twitter can actually keep up with the original and perhaps introduce something new to the formula remains to be seen. Hopefully they’ll be able to do a better job in terms of topic moderation, something that Clubhouse may be looking to resolve soon beforehand.
