14 Facts About Clubhouse Retailers Need to Know

Photo of the Clubhouse app
 

By Tricia McKinnon

Everyone’s talking about it but few people are actually on the fast growing Clubhouse app. Last year founders Paul Davison and Rohan Seth launched the audio only app. “Our goal was to build a social experience that felt more human—where instead of posting, you could gather with other people and talk. Our north star was to create something where you could close the app at the end of the session feeling better than you did when you opened it, because you had deepened friendships, met new people and learned,” said Clubhouse in a statement. 

Many are calling Clubhouse the next big thing in social media after TikTok. It’s so hot right now there people trying to sell invites to the app for hundreds of dollars. If you are trying to understand what all the hype is about then take a look at these 14 facts about the app.

1. Chats on Clubhouse are there and then they’re gone. The content on Clubhouse is live and ephemeral, it’s gone after a chat is over. The ephemeral nature of the content helps engagement since if you aren’t paying attention you can’t go back and listen again like you can with a podcast. Every podcast listener knows how easy it is to get distracted only to then hit the rewind button to listen to what you have missed over and over again until you are finally paying attention. While chats on Clubhouse are not supposed to be recorded there are instances of chats appearing on Twitter or YouTube after the fact.

2. It’s experiencing hyper growth. Within the first month after the Clubhouse app launched last April it only had 1,000 users but now over 10 million people have downloaded the app. “Voice is a very intimate tool. There’s something powerful about being able to hear someone’s authenticity, vulnerability, and strengths all in one space,” says Clubhouse user Julie Wenah. “I think this helps break down barriers and shows we are more alike than we are different.”

Users also like the idea of not having to get glammed up for a Clubhouse chat like many do for an Instagram Live session or a Zoom call. "People are getting tired of staring at each other, sitting upright and still on video chats unable to get anything else done other than pretending to listen,” says Marcus Johnson, eMarketer’s Producer of Podcasts.

3. Getting an invite is the most common way to join the app. Typically to join Clubhouse you must be invited by someone already using the app but you can also sign up for Clubhouse’s waitlist. “We’re working hard to scale Clubhouse as fast as we can and open it up to everyone soon. In the meantime, anyone can join with an invite from an existing user, or sign up for the waitlist so we can welcome you in soon,” said Clubhouse in a statement.

4. It’s an exclusive club. Clubhouse initially grew amongst venture capitalists and elite members of the tech industry and from there on to celebrities. Some of the heavyweights on the app include Mark Cuban, Kevin Hart, Tiffany Haddish, Chris Rock, Ashton Kutcher and Jeffery Katzenberg. But now the user base is much broader with musicians, athletes, influencers, entrepreneurs, scientists and many walks of life frequenting the platform.  

The app drew attention when Telsa CEO Elon Musk hosted a chat where he discussed COVID-19 vaccines, bitcoin, space travel, AI and colonies on Mars. He also interviewed Vlad Tenev CEO of Robinhood about the GameStop controversy. Musk’s talk quickly filled up to the standard maximum capacity of 5,000 people per chat room. 

5. The app does not have an advertising platform. Similar to other social media apps in the beginning, there is no advertising on Clubhouse right now. That means marketers have to find creative ways to reach their target audience on the platform. Some marketers have sponsored Clubhouse chat rooms as a way to increase brand awareness. Cash App which is owned by Square Inc. sponsored a live game show taking place on Clubhouse in February and it gave $3,200 in prizes to participants of the show.

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6. Brands haven’t figured out the platform yet. Brands largely do not have a presence on Clubhouse especially since there is no formal advertising mechanism yet but they are trying to figure how to leverage the platform. For example, Nike and New Balance have joined conversations happening on the app. Sneakerheads Anonymous a club on Clubhouse with over 40,000 followers had Ryan Smith a supply chain engineer at Nike as well as Joe Grondin, New Balance’s head of partnerships join one of the group’s talks on the sneaker industry.

7. The company is testing monetization options for creators. Clubhouse recently launched a creator accelerator program called Clubhouse Creator’s First Program for 20 of its top creators. “Over the next few months, we plan to launch our first tests to allow creators to get paid directly—through features like tipping, tickets or subscriptions. We will also be using a portion of the new funding round to roll out a Creator Grant Program to support emerging Clubhouse creators,” said Clubhouse in a statement. Creators in the program are provided with a $5,000 stipend per month, mentoring and access to Clubhouse’s founders.

8. It serves an eclectic set of users. Whatever you fancy you can probably find it on Clubhouse. Chat rooms cover a range of areas including networking events, standup comedy, venture capital, politics, religion, social justice reform, book clubs and even meditation sessions. Recently a Clubhouse chat room had a live reenactment of The Lion King where artists performed songs from the popular musical. Maximum room capacity for the musical was quicky reached both times the live performance aired. It proved that “that this audio space can be used for not just conversations but also unique experiences,” said music artist Bomani X one of the organizers of the The Lion King show.

9. Engagement is high. Users on Clubhouse are highly engaged on the platform not just because of top notch speakers but because of the platform’s intimacy. “It’s a sign of what’s to come on social media,” says Alex Taussig, a partner at VC firm Lightspeed. “People want to focus on smaller, more intimate communities because the existing large public squares on other social platforms are extremely noisy.” “The intimacy on Clubhouse is not something that I have felt on social media in a long time. Facebook and Twitter have become public squares, while Clubhouse feels more like you’re at your dining room table,” says Taussig.

10. Discoverability on the app is lacking. With so much happening on Clubhouse some users say it can be difficult to find conversations that are relevant to them. “To be honest,” says Robert Hackett a senior editor at Fortune. “I haven’t found a good way to know when the good conversations are happening. But…what’s good about it is the serendipity. You never know who is going to be there…And you often [hear] really good people speak.” 

Discoverability on Clubhouse is a critical focus for Clubhouse’s management team. “As we’ve grown, the number of conversations happening on Clubhouse has skyrocketed, and it’s our job to help you find the right ones each time you open the app. With this new round of funding we’ll be investing heavily in discovery so that we can show you people, clubs, and rooms that are perfectly tailored to your interests—and help you discover new rooms you never would have thought to look for,” said Clubhouse in a statement.

11. Got an iPhone? Clubhouse is only available on iOS for now but the company is working on an Android version of the app.

12. The nascent app has a high valuation. Clubhouse has approximately two million weekly active users. After a $100 million round of funding led by Andreessen Horowitz in January Clubhouse was valued at $1 billion. But recently Clubhouse insiders say that Twitter was in talks to purchase Clubhouse at a $4 billion valuation but the deal did not go through.

13. Rivals have taken notice.  Clubhouse has some big name competition. Twitter started testing an audio feature last December called Twitter Spaces with a small number of users. Twitter Spaces will be open to all users this month. In a tweet from Twitter announcing the new functionality Twitter said: “introducing Spaces, where live audio conversations happen. Now you can tweet and talk. Spaces brings Twitter to life.” Facebook is also hot on Clubhouse’s heels with plans to launch an audio feature of its own. 

14. It’s still early days. Critics still wonder if Clubhouse has legs. “It’s either dead by July or it’s something big,” said Josh Felser, co-founder of venture firm Freestyle. “We’re all locked away right now so it was a good time to launch it. I don’t know if it’s sustainable.”

Tricia McKinnonTrendsComment