You might have heard of Clubhouse before, but it is on a craze right now as Elon Musk joined the social media. Clubhouse is a new social media app that focuses on live audio conversations. It started in May 2020 and had reached US $1billion in valuation, which is the unicorn status for start-ups. The app had 600,000 users in December 2020 and it had reached 2 million this year.
Why is it so successful?
1) Exclusivity
Clubhouse built its reputation in its Snapchat-like podcast format where there’s no recording available after the live session ends. It also focuses on exclusivity where users need to get an invite in order to join the social media. Each new member of the app only has two invites at his or her dispense and had to keep using the app to get more invitations to onboard new friends.
2) Variety
Once the user secured the invite and joined the platform, they could join different chats at any time based on subjects they find interesting. Instead of the usual passive listening during podcasts, Clubhouse allows one to interact with the speaker and other listeners.
3) Networking opportunity
Since the lockdown, most people find it hard to develop a new network of friends or business partners. Thus, Clubhouse provides the opportunity for users to participate in panel discussions and browse profiles of other users to discover more people with the same interest.
4) Celebrities
Clubhouse appeal to the public as it managed to onboard celebrities such as Oprah, Drake, Ashton Kutcher, and Kevin Hart, among others. People joined the platform in hope of the chance to participate in a conversation with famous people.
The recent live stream with Elon Musk had garnered more interest in the app. Musk talked about Bitcoin, vaccine roll-out, and even unexpectedly grilled Robinhood CEO Vladimir Tenev on the spot on the recent Gamestop fallout. The unvarnished conversations between successful businessmen such as Musk and Mark Cuban are also the main attraction for Clubhouse.
Currently, one cannot join Clubhouse without an invite. However, if you are an iPhone user, the app is downloadable here and you can reserve a username for the moment.
