Clubhouse is one of the hottest topics on social media right now. This new social network, only accessible by invitation and on iPhone, allows you to chat orally live and move from one chat room to another.
Founded in 2020 by two entrepreneurs, Paul Davison and Rohan Seth, and still in the testing phase, the app is currently ranked among the most popular apps on the AppStore in Germany, Italy, at Japan and Turkey, and claims two million weekly users.
VIP lounges, available by invitation
More than the principle, it is the participants of these virtual meeting rooms that have attracted attention in recent days. Clubhouse brings together VIP guests – actors, businessmen and women: Mark Zuckerberg, Oprah Winfrey, Jared Leto, Ashton Kutcher or Drake, as well as personalities from the Black Lives Matter movement – who discuss various and varied subjects or provide promoting their products. For example, the boss of Facebook spoke about the future of augmented and virtual reality, while Elon Musk answered questions from two Silicon Valley pundits, Sriram Krishnan and Aarthi Ramamurthy, who host a daily show, “Good Time”. No session can be recorded for later broadcast.
The user who has been accepted (each user has two invitations, no more) must create their profile, feed their friends list, be followed and subscribe to these chat rooms. Communication then takes place by voice. No written posts, hashtags or mentions. A user can create their own room, choose participants, or search for a meeting room by topic. This can accommodate up to 5,000 people simultaneously but the size of the meetings varies depending on the organizer, who may limit it to a handful of guests and listeners.
Facebook likes to draw inspiration from its competitors
Always on the lookout for trends and listening to the tremendous buzz that Clubhouse is currently experiencing – which is not unrelated to not being able to access it without being invited – Facebook is working on a similar project. The information, revealed by the New York Times February 10, does not specify the stage of progress of this oral social network project, nor the date of its launch. But for the American media, the interest of Facebook is therefore not surprising. The Californian giant has never hesitated to copy the good recipes of its competitors, like Stories and Reels, largely inspired by Snapchat and TikTok, launched in 2016 by Instagram.
This new audio chat would be largely inspired by Clubhouse. Believes to know the New York Times, which quotes two people familiar with the matter. “We have been connecting people for many years through audio and video technologies and we are always exploring new ways to improve this experience for our users.“reacted Facebook through the voice of Emilie Haskell, its spokesperson. A reaction which seems to confirm the interest of the social network, always in search of new modes of communication, such as the recent launch of Rooms, a video chat service of group straight inspired by the Zoom application.
Twitter is also working on a similar project, dubbed Spaces, and currently available in beta. The microblogging network has acquired the start-up Breaker to strengthen its audio offer. Finally, according to The Verge, businessman Mark Cuban (founder of broadcast.com) is also working on a streaming audio application called Fireside. Clubhouse also raised $ 100 million in January. The start-up, which has reached a valuation of $ 1 billion according to PitchBook, is not for sale at the moment.