The social audio app Clubhouse is rumored to have raised a Series C funding round, valuing the company at about $4 billion. The startup which began life in 2020 is rocking the social media world, and now boasts of 10 million weekly active users. Yet, as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Spotify and others circle the voice social media ecosystem with clones, the question becomes: does Clubhouse have a future? Unlike Tiktok which created a huge niche within an existing order, souped and moated by the world’s best short video discovery algorithm, the moat in Clubhouse may not be very evident.
Audio-chat app Clubhouse closed a new Series C round of financing, the company said during its weekly town hall on Sunday, without disclosing the amount raised.
A source familiar with the matter confirmed to Reuters that the new financing would value the company at $4 billion.
The social media app said the new round of financing was led by Andrew Chen of venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz with major investors like DST Global, Tiger Global and Elad Gil.
The biggest innovation in Clubhouse is that it has the first mover advantage. Yes, it began first on the audio social platform category. But I am not sure it has any top industry-shaping algorithm which new players with more auxiliary data cannot eclipse.
So, at the end, Clubhouse may end up selling. If LinkedIn needed Microsoft to exist, you see the high order required to thrive in this age. LinkedIn does not need to be as good as Clubhouse on what Clubhouse offers. Most will just manage with it provided it keeps most things together in one place, saving us from having many apps installed! If that is the case, Clubhouse hits a growth ceiling quicker, and selling becomes inevitable.
Yet, that sale may not happen as those who can afford to buy this company may be worried about how the US Congress will react after the challenging experiences with Facebook. Many today believe that Facebook acquisitions of WhatsApp and Instagram ought to have been blocked. So, under that climate, Clubhouse will have to go all the way, alone.
And with the high voltage searchlights the new Congress and US Presidency have on social media companies, potential buyers of Clubhouse may not be bold to close any deal. So, unless General Motors and Boeing (you get the idea) have interests, this firm may have to go it alone since the typicals (FB, Google, etc) will not like to annoy Congress with acquisition of a fledgling competitor.
This company has battles to fight: the clones are gathering daily. It must win those battles.
This is not a typical Sunday post. But I am writing it to share a lesson. One young man pitched my team, writing proposals, but they rejected his ideas. I was told that he went to the Hub and did the same thing. He wanted to reach university campuses for Tekedia CollegeBoost, a Tekedia Mini-MBA version for students. Then, he inmailed me. I liked his bravado and boldness as the proposal came with data!
I woke up this morning to read from him, “Please I need the account details to remit money into. We have 45 registered & paid participants ready for class though I’ll wait till evening for the number to complete 50.”
To all Nigerian universities/polytechnics/colleges of education and student unions for Tekedia CollegeBoost, we have moved the recruitment engagement for that program to students. Eyitayo Adeleke is going to nationally coordinate that with his team at Federal University of Technology, Minna. So, if you have any questions, reach out to Eyitayo. Tekedia Institute will continue to handle all academic programs including the delivery, support, etc. But the recruitment goes to the students and their networks. The goal is to improve the cost model and ensure that most students can attain our program before graduation.
Lesson here: sometimes, we miss huge opportunities because they come in disguised packages. Eyitayo Adeleke has shown that he is a rainmaker, despite the fact that he is a student. Why pay attention to him?
My team frustrated him, but thank goodness that we connected. We can get 1,000 members from him by Dec – and that happens because I engaged him. He built something which is more efficient than how we approach our sales.
How do you relate with people? How do you make yourself accessible? The angels you are praying to visit on Sundays typically come as humans. Open for them and you would be surprised.
Much has been made recently of recent high profile roll outs in Africa as new ‘Continental HQs’ and how Nigeria, the highest country by GDP on the continent by some margin has lost out. The first was the high profile loss of Twitter to Ghana, and now just announced, the loss of Amazon to South Africa.
Does this mean the slide in global thinking is running away from Nigeria and it’s apex position as the ‘obvious go-to’ is no longer assumed?
I say no, because it NEVER was, ISN’T now, and ALWAYS will be. If you wish to be confused further, please read on!
High profile actions don’t always deliver change in trends, performance improvement or positive reform.
Detective Orlando Martinez was a lead detective on the death of Michael Jackson, which became a murder investigation.
‘Not only do you have to do what you can for the victim, but you also have to take into account the ‘organisation’. Historically, our department had not had very much success on high profile cases. We had lost the OJ case.’ [colleague interjection] ‘And even though you have this overwhelming amount of evidence to secure a conviction, you don’t get it’.[end] Martinez continues : ‘For us, working the case, we did not want to make the same mistakes that had been made in the Departments memory and in the public memory. There was a lot of pressure to get it right’….But shouldn’t a public servant act to ‘get it right’ not because of ‘pressure’ owing to the political dimension, but simply because it’s the right thing to do?
I reflect on the recent news announcements about Derek Chauvin who was convicted on all counts in the death of George Floyd. While ‘justice seen to be done’ doesn’t bring back those lost, I hope it brings some closure to the bereaved.
Right now as I write this, there are millions of people, not necessarily in US but across the world.and they are alone in their predicament, away from the public and any chance of being videoed by a smartphone. They may not be black, or male or even an adult. Some may have identity characteristics in common with George Floyd, some may not. But those millions right now are at risk of death, rape, serious injury or some other major calamity at the hands of corrupt and/or discriminatory institutional power. In this moment of helplessness, they are all George Floyd.
It is thirteen years on from my leadership of LEOF, an organisation with a contractual equality brief in the UK, and twenty past the release of the Mc Pherson Report into the death of Stephen Lawrence which advocated institutional commitment to Valuing Diversity Reforms. I still see some of the same Black and Minority Ethnic Business Leaders, the same Female Business Leaders, and the same Business Leaders with Disabilities… some have enjoyed success…many just seem older and more tired. Most voice the same problems and say change has not been enough. This is a personal disappointment for me.
Audley English FRSA, RIBA, AA Dipl CEO/Owner of Buildeco and former Principal Consultant of AEA, a LEOF/Safebuild.com approved company.
‘On George Floyd day, we must root out social injustice and systemic racism around the world.’ – Audley English 21 April 2021.
That big ‘C’ word.
Pivoting to the Nigerian context, the dynamics of prejudice and disadvantage are different. Tribalism is a big player, so also is Patriarchy and Elitism.
FGN periodically releases news of large sums of money being agreed for recovery from offshore investment custodians held in accounts by people closely associated with or related to former leaders.
EFCC continues to make big inroads in recovering money from fraud.
I don’t want to cover corruption in any great detail, because though it is more overt in Nigeria, there is no state on this earth, irrespective of political model, that does not have some level of corruption.
Moreover, corruption is often discussed with a sense of hopelessness and negativity which saps peoples spirit, and the will to take positive action.
Just as cases in for example the US, often high profile actions driven by a political narrative are the right things getting done, but with the wrong motivation.
There are many things happening out of the limelight that involve day to day institutionalized corruption that can have devastating negative impact on ordinary Nigerian citizens. From the protective services to federal road safety, immigration, customs, food safety, environment and waste management inspectors, electricity provider officials, state health professionals, there is a myriad of encounters on a daily basis which either extort as an obstacle to normal civilian activity or collect payment to ignore behaviour which is dangerous or detrimental to the general good in some way.
All across this world, Public Service is intended as a Vocation, not necessarily a Career. This means it needs to attract the type of individual who will see ‘Higher Purpose’ above personal benefit. The impact of this is people who will execute their duties with uniform integrity, impartiality and commitment to a diverse public, regardless of whether they are regulating an unremarkable flow of traffic in Lagos Nigeria, or in the US, managing an investigation into the murder of Michael Jackson, or, indeed, George Floyd.
I lament as I see businesses bankrupted, livelihoods ended, children’s futures destroyed and lives lost in some cases of public engagement by public servants in Nigeria which has become a personal economy pandemic.
From a pregnant woman’s timely journey to hospital wilfully disrupted by highway officers, to leaking fuel tankers exploding in public….
A ‘Drivers Boy’ holds a fuel soaked cloth in a hopeless attempt to minimize a leak in free-flow, while the tanker continues on a major transport artery in Nigeria. Because roadside officials allowed themselves to be incentivized to ignore this…... will later become this
… we can see that it is the mass existence of relatively low value illicit exchanges that wreak the most havoc in Nigerian lives rather than high profile mega-sum acts of fraud.
“NAN gathered that operatives of Nigeria Customs Service raided Bodija market around 1.00 a.m. on Thursday and broke into shops, warehouses and carted away bags of rice in six trailers.” And it was done outside the knowledge of Oyo/Osun Customs Area Command which noted that its officers did not do the job. Rather, Nigeria used the Federal Operation Unit (FOU) to steal rice from the Ibadan traders.’ – Prof. Ndubuisi Ekekwe. – A testament to citizen facing abuse of civil authority power.
When we see that the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has said that it is prepared to take its renewed campaign against the use of illicit drugs to ‘nuclear families’. and announcements have been made that the MEC team in Lagos, on the back of announcements by the Minister for Agriculture, will be confiscating animals in premises deemed illegal, and auctioning them, we may anticipate other actions that becomes ‘variations on the theme’ of Prof. Ekekwe’s observations on the Ibadan traders plight.
At a time when institutional engagement in Nigeria with the general public is broken, then what is needed is a Bottom – Up approach to fixing the problem.
Until fixed, there needs to be a rigorous avoidance of intensification of such institutional engagement, neither through heightened activity in existing apparatus, the reactivation of dormant ones, nor the creation of new ones.
As I began, I said (Nigeria’s NEVER was, ISN’T now, and ALWAYS will be.
NEVER
Because Amazon was never Nigeria’s to lose. Modern Trade had always struggled in Nigeria and will for some time to come. It was strongest in South Africa where for half a century Afrikaans business owners facilitated a semi-permanent global labour force with European and North American shopping habits.
Indeed it was South Africa that brought businesses such as Shoprite, GAME and Park and Shop to Nigeria.
Amazon retail is a curious flip of Homebase. Homebase has taken the standard counter-front warehouse model and created a trolley and aisle ‘browsing’ experience where shoppers can navigate their way through a physical warehouse style environment. Risen from the online bookseller business, Amazon also provides physical modern trade like environments where customers can select items from a diverse catalogue, pay at the counter, and after a brief wait, collect the purchase as it has been retrieved from the back-end warehouse by staff.
With Modern Trade in strong retreat in Nigeria, and Best Choice franchises withdrawing, the low GDP per capita is further strengthening the already overwhelmingly dominant ‘traditional market’ sector in the country.
Nigeria would not be the right choice for African Leadership for Amazon.
NOT NOW
Because in the current asymmetrical, inconsistent and in some cases, detrimental way civil services and apparatus engage with the public there isn’t an incentive to site locally
A new ‘Social Vision’ born of political innovation is needed to bring Nigeria the type of Social Justice Audley English envisages when he reflects on George Floyd Day.
This is the third biggest challenge to Nigeria’s general welfare today, second being tribal inequality issues, and the leading challenge – adequate provision of grid power.
These are the issues that earns Nigeria an ‘Expatriate Hardship’ rating of 4 (the highest), and severely depresses the countries position in the ‘Ease to do business’ rankings.
Last week, Peter Obi, Former Governor of Anambra, and Vice presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2019 election, described Nigeria as ‘dying’ – ‘The present condition of Nigeria requires all hand to be on deck.’
Given that Twitter’s core product does not require face-to-face customer engagement with local mass markets, the challenges of a base in Nigeria significantly reduce its value proposition as an Africa hub site.
THE ALWAYS WILL BE
Nigeria already has the largest captive mass market in Africa. A screenshot from an animation by Virtual Capitalist shows Lagos as the biggest conurbation on the planet by 2100
Nigeria already has the largest captive market in all of Africa. By the end of the century, Lagos will be the biggest ‘Mega City’ in the world.
While there is much social reform and tribal concord to be achieved, the massive captive market is something that will continue to get bigger, with Lagos reaching a projected 88m by the end of the century.
Regardless of the challenges of interfacing with civil authorities, and all the other challenges, these people still need essential products and services. Ultimately all challenges will simply become a cost of sales until resolved.
As we also read in , Oluwole Ogunlade’s Tekedia, artifice about Flutterwave, section on ‘Build Moats to create competitive advantages’, – ‘Flutterwave’s moat is its ecosystem of products and platforms. No other payment provider in Africa has this scale and moat. It’s not just a payment company: it is a payment platform powering new business models for others.’
As it seeks to build its ‘moats’ it is inevitable that even Twitter will eventually have to come back to THE BIGGEST URBAN MARKET ON EARTH
Nigeria will continue to wrestle with these challenges, both social and infrastructural.
While it does, this mega market will continue to grow unabated.
Companies will lose by failing to weather the challenges. Other companies will lose their global positioning by failing to timely anticipate and leverage the increasing impact this market will have in it.
However, those that plant their seeds without delay, grow their brand, and grow their presence, will be the ones who collect when harvest time comes!
References and Acknowledgements:
Killing Michael Jackson Produced by ZigZag Productions (2019) Dir. Sam Eastall.
If you hate your teacher, you will likely struggle in that class. If you hate your school, you will not have energy to give your best. And if you hate what you do, you will remain unsettled to be better on it. And if you hate your country, most times, your mind will not be open to see the “good” in it.
For all the mess going on Nigeria, your option is to overcome despair with optimism, and in that construct see why the billionaires are getting richer, and startups minting $millionaires, even when those sleeping under the bridges have lost their “homes” [very unfortunate].
President Buhari’s problems cannot be your absolute problems; deal with what you can control. What you can control is this: tomorrow is a promise and I can make it work. Yes, you are in school. That unemployment is high should not be a full concern. Rather, the focus should be developing skills and graduating with good grades.
Live positively! The sounds of crickets will come through. The happy birds will break. And the future will turn into acres of diamonds!
Good People, Tekedia Institute just transferred to Mhagic our last bundled support for Tekedia Institute to win the $60k Mhagic Prize. That will give 430 students FULL scholarships to Tekedia Mini-MBA.
That means, you do not need to contribute again via the Tekedia bundle as our team would be unable to transfer it before the competition ends at midnight. You need to go directly to Mhagic if you still want to support. (Any transfer from now would be returned to you, so do not send anything to us). Dozens and dozens supported and we want to thank everyone.
Specifically, I want to thank the students at FUTMinna for the efforts. If we win, we will offer 30 scholarship slots (out of the 430) to Tekedia Mini-MBA to FUTMinna students. They are very amazing. We will also make 20 available to residents in Kogi; a businesswoman supported in a big way. Her family has sponsored more than 45 people to Tekedia Mini-MBA.
From all of us at Tekedia Institute, THANK YOU for joining us. As always, may the best idea WIN.
