Move over TikTok – a new social media format looks set to grab the headlines over the coming 12 months.
Clubhouse has already made waves among people in the know, but the beta version that has so far been available has been quite exclusive, accessible through invite only.
The buzz surrounding the platform has increased in part through celebrity take-up, with the likes of Oprah Winfrey, Ashton Kutcher, Drake, Chris Rock and Jared Leto all taking part.
It is now being used by a reported 2m users every week, according to Andrew Chen of the eminent Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), but the company has plans to get much bigger.
The platform’s founders, Paul Davison and Rohan Seth, said that they were now looking to open up Clubhouse to the whole world, with a fresh round of funding helping to enable this goal.
Chen was installed on the start-up’s board of directors as part of a funding deal with a16z.
The size of the funding injection has not been confirmed, but the company’s valuation is believed to be in the region of $1bn.
Clubhouse is an audio-based social media app
What exactly is Clubhouse, and what is all the billion-dollar fuss about?
Basically, it’s a platform that hosts various chats on different subjects, with people participating, listening in or both.
Clubhouse itself says that it provides a new kind of social offering that “allows people everywhere to talk, tell stories, develop ideas, deepen friendships, and meet interesting new people around the world”.
There are different chat rooms, which are generally overseen by moderators and will be identified with titles, brief descriptions, and the names and profiles of moderators and invited speakers.
You can listen in, but you have to have permission to speak – which prevents the room from descending into chaos, with people shouting over each other or talking at the same time.
You can virtually ‘raise your hand’ and the moderator may allow you to speak, but this may depend on the type of chat you are in.
It’s been described as lying somewhere between live podcasting, panel discussions, and group or individual networking opportunities.
There are options for private chats and, importantly, the audio conversations are neither recorded nor saved.
It certainly looks like one platform to watch (or at least listen out for) in 2021.
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