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The “can clubhouse succeed as a mainstream social thing because it was started in the bay area” debate is an interesting tribal flareup but misses a lot. I don’t think the answer is absolutely yes or no.
Social things are as much defined by their technical functionality as their culture, perhaps more by the latter. Yes, instagram was started in the bay, but they seeded it with people who have good taste to start with. “Good taste” was and still is a defining aspect of Instagram.
No, Snapchat wasn’t seeded in the bay area, but it was essential for it to be defined as “playful, fun, cool“. These are not words one would use to describe a social environment filled with VCs, hence the need to start with a different audience.
Discord has built an amazing technical platform, but (I think) is too deeply tainted by the negatives of gamer culture (abuse, harassment) to ever branch out to other areas in a significant way. It’s not the software, It’s the culture.
So the answer to the original question really is, it doesn’t matter that much. The better question is, can it successfully manage and develop a culture that appeals to the mainstream? (And does its current audience complicate that)
Generally speaking, I think the average SV designer/engineer/etc has poor taste on a mainstream, cultural scale, which is why the sample set so far is rife with failures.
