Clojure was designed to be applicable where Java is applicable. Fortunately that space of programs is enormous and the market is enormous. Clojure does not need to "win" against Java (or anything). It is unlikely (for many reasons that have nothing to do with its value as a language) to ever be more than a fraction as popular as Java, but that's irrelevant. It has a thriving sustainable ecosystem with 10k's of devs in 100's of companies. That is sufficient to call it a success.