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Comment by chrisseaton | Hacker News Reader

I don't think they're trying to draw users in yet? It's invite only isn't it?

Yes it’s invite only. Yes that is a strategy to draw in users, potentially more effectively than being wide open. It’s in the article.

How can that draw users in? The point is it's exclusive. If you read the article it says 'and boy, are invites hard to come by'. So they can get my interest... but they literally can't draw me in can they because I can't join if I wanted to. They can't convert.

It’s in the article

Do you know it's against the site guidelines here to just accuse people of not reading the article rather than actually presenting an argument?

It doesn't matter how attractive a platform is if you simply aren't going to get onto it. Clubhouse can make me interested, but can't actually get me onboarded.

Yeah, it's not in the article.

I can imagine a scenario though, were they gradually increase the number of invites they give out. I think the idea is that the perception of scarcity will persist, even when invites aren't really scarce.

Right - the bulk of the article is about how the “cool factor” of scarcity and variable rewards induce a demand greater than what might be there if they were simply wide open.

So two things: first, they are opening the app up to anyone (and on Android) in the near future (timing TBC of course). It'll be interesting to see if the hype they've built will last all the way through to then. Second, I fully agree with you that opening the app up is actually problematic for them. It's almost like the opposite of the network effect, where I think having more people on the platform is going to potentially make the quality deteriorate. Right now, it feels authentic but somewhat curated (i.e. we have moderators who invite high-profile and very interesting panelists on to speak) - I'm not sure that will be maintained when it becomes a free-for-all.

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