In just two months, Clubhouse has become the place where poverty like Elon Musk or Drake has the choice over everything from telepathic monkeys to stock market valuations. But the real winner of the audio chat app’s stratospheric rise is a loss-making Shanghai startup called Agora Inc.
Agora, known especially in technology circles as a diligent but low-profile software tool provider, has risen more than 150% since mid-January when online chats began spreading about how it’s the world’s most popular new social media forum gee. This is because the little-known company – now worth almost $ 10 billion – provides all the necessary developers to build real-time voice and video features within applications: a template known as a software development kit.
Agora – ancient Greek for a forum or market – has been publicly linked to Clubhouse since its purse last summer, though it is unclear to what extent the red-hot social media forum has used its software kit. According to the analysis of the Clubhouse app, Agora’s name is mentioned in the code, which means that Clubhouse uses at least part of the Chinese firm’s SDK, according to two engineers familiar with the matter, who asked not to be named. is not because the software code breach violates Apple’s iOS user policies.
According to Paulhouse co-founders Paul Davison and Rohan Seth, during Agora’s talks, they said they were using Agora, according to two people who heard the discussions but asked not to be named because Clubhouse was not in public about its technological stack does not speak. And in an experiment this week, German software engineer Andreas Lehr told Bloomberg News he analyzed the traffic coming from his phone while connected to Clubhouse, noting several calls to agora.io.
In addition to just driving Agora’s share price, however, the amorphous link is starting to raise concerns about the app’s security. It’s the same vague fear that attaches itself to the biggest companies of TikTok owner ByteDance Ltd. to unheard of outfits: that Beijing has the power not only to demand that they hand over data at will, but also to force Chinese companies to spy on its behalf. Agora declined to comment on his relationship with Clubhouse, but said in a statement that he takes privacy and security seriously.
“As in the case of Zoom, Agora continues to operate its centralized service in various jurisdictions,” said Suji Yan, founder and CEO of the Mask Network for the Beginning of Data Privacy. It builds a tool for users to encrypt messages on Twitter and Facebook. “It is difficult for a public corporation like Agora not to respond to the request of a local government.”
The debate over the extent of Agora’s involvement comes even though Beijing appears to be acting against clubhouse. Many of the app’s users in China say they have not been able to access the service since Monday, following an explosion of discussions over the weekend on taboo topics from Taiwan to Xinjiang.
But it is the potential for oversight that concerns international users. According to Chinese law, its companies must provide information on request and even collect data on behalf of Beijing if deemed in the interests of national security. This, coupled with accusations by U.S. lawmakers that Chinese businesses could build backdoors into devices and software that the Communist Party could exploit, is at the heart of growing hostility toward China’s biggest technology providers.
Agora’s customizable tools are used on users’ devices as part of client applications such as Clubhouse. Agora co-founder Tony Wang told the media that the company does not store end-user data but serves as a ‘pass-over’. But from a technical perspective, it gets real-time voice data that helps it transmit to Clubhouse. According to the two engineers who know it, it will not cross-identify with users’ mobile numbers – which in turn trace their true identity – because such data is managed by Clubhouse itself.
In theory, Chinese employees could cross-check Agora’s voice data against other voice data that does link to real IDs – for example, those of state-owned Chinese telecom operators – as a way to identify activists or dissidents, Mask Network said. Yan.
“At the moment, I do not think the government would have the computing power to do that, but you can not rule out the possibility for the future,” Yan said. “And the cross-reference of voice data bound to the same cell number will leak more data and cause more potential problems than we thought.”
Launched in 2013 by software engineer Tony Zhao, Agora has grown into one of China’s largest providers of real-time communications technology, featuring big names such as education provider New Oriental Education & Technology Group and dating app operator The Meeting Group drive. It has attracted investments from venture capital firms, including SIG, Coatue Management and China’s Morningside, which is also one of the earliest supporters of the short-video app Kuaishou Technology.
Revenue grew 81% to $ 30.8 million for the September quarter, when companies outside China contributed more than 20% of sales, executives told analysts in a post-earnings call in November.
Agora itself highlighted China’s complex internet regulatory regime as a risk factor in its IPO prospectus, adding that it may be necessary to take further steps to comply with the European Union’s GDPR privacy laws or regulations elsewhere. It currently offers products in more than 100 countries.
Speculation about the Chinese roots of Clubhouse has not yet harmed its global popularity, nor has Beijing’s actions.
“The Chinese-language discussions I heard last week were notable for touching on issues that are heavily censored in China, while allowing open discussion across the Chinese border,” said Graham Webster of Stanford University Cyber Policy Center said.
(Except for the headline, this story was not processed by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)