How Social Networking App Houseparty Is Entertaining Generations During Quarantine Lockdowns 

Humans are social creatures by nature and the lockdowns implemented in multiple countries across the globe has starved them of the social company that many people crave and Houseparty managed to fill that void by letting people socialise on its platform.  The fun app is a social networking application which lets users gather around in a virtual conference call in order to socialise.  Houseparty currently has over 10 million downloads on Google Play Store and even more on Apple Store (Apple would not divulge the exact number.)  This app went on to beat every other social networking app and sits at first place on the Apple Store in 17 countries, including Spain, Italy and the United Kingdom. According to Apptopia, which tracks the performance of apps, Houseparty is currently the third most downloaded app on the iOS app store in the United States, behind Zoom and TikTok and comes top in the United Kingdom.  As millions of people around the world are confined to their homes, the socialising app quickly became the go-to app for Gen-Z and millennials beating the likes of Skype, Zoom and Hangouts.  This is because of the in app games that users can play while catching up with each other.

Some companies have even hosted ‘virtual happy hours’ and friends are catching up for some simple dinner and drinks albeit virtually.  The app lets a maximum of 8 users to get in a single group and users can play games while video conferencing. Games include quizzes, trivia and a game similar to pictionary.

Houseparty is owned by Epic Games, the developers of the popular battle royale online multiplayer game Fortnite.  This pp largely works on social spontaneity and live conversations. For example, when a user is online, his/her friends receive a push notification that they are “in the house”, the recipient may be prompted to join.  Users can also enter friends’ conversations without their permission, unless they have specifically chosen to ‘lock’ their room by pressing the padlock button on the room screen.

Houseparty was downloaded 570,000 in January and 533,000 times in February. When it comes to revenue, Houseparty jumped from $17,000 in February to $155,000 in March, representing an enormous leap of 912 per cent in user spending according to a mobile app marketing firm Sensor Tower.

However, the social networking app found itself in the middle of unwanted publicity when questions about its security popped up with concerns for user data.  Houseparty iterated that user data was safe and not sabotaged. Houseparty believes that the bad publicity was part of a paid smear campaign to spoil its reputation and has in fact offered a bounty of 1 million dollars to anyone who can prove that it was the target of a paid commercial smear campaign.

Houseparty managed to thrive during this period when multiple countries worldwide are in an unprecedented quarantine lockdown.  This has affected businesses and corporations badly and experts have forecasted an economic depression which would follow once the threat of COVID-19 passes.  However, Houseparty is a unique app which is managing to thrive in this uncertain times