You read this, so you were not there to help America establish the West. You were probably not there to help man land on the moon. And you will probably have to wait a long time to help colonize Mars.
So here’s a consolation prize: you still have the chance to claim virtual territory on Clubhouse, the busy social network dedicated to live audio, before everyone gets there. Hurry up though: There are a lot of people trying to do exactly the same thing.
Clubhouse is a frothy mix of AM radio and a very good technology conference, and it allows you to set up online chats or attend them with celebrities, friends or anyone in between. A few weeks ago, Katie Couric, Paris Hilton and Bethenny Frenkel, a reality star-entrepreneur, came together in a virtual “room” with more than 1,000 people listening to their conversation; At some point later that evening, the same venue turned into a discussion about the benefits of bitcoin with CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin, Cheddar’s CEO, Jon Steinberg, and John Legere, the former CEO of T-Mobile.
Clubhouse was launched less than a year ago and immediately drew attention to Silicon Valley and other types of technology. It has since grown rapidly and expanded its user base to include everyone from French speakers to black activists.
But there is one specific type of clubhouse user that you will often find at clubhouse: the speculative clubhouse user. This is someone who wants to be on clubhouse, because maybe clubhouse is going to be a big thing, and they want to come in before that happens.
‘You’re now looking at clay being formed. What you’re seeing happening in Clubhouse right now is going to change into something else, ‘says Laurel Touby, who succeeded in the first internet boom by building and eventually selling MediaBistro, a workspace and event company.
Touby is now an investor at Supernode Ventures and says she tried Clubhouse last year when other investors were first fascinated by the service. She was not blown away, but eventually saw enough tips that it was a social network with lasting power. She says she decided to ‘fall [her] drawers and go for it ”by spending time providing clubhouse rooms.
“I admit it. I was not on Twitter early enough. I was not early enough to get on TikTok or other platforms. But this is a chance to get in here early. ”
Warning: Like other social networks, Clubhouse is not one thing. And the bigger it gets – the company recently announced that it now has 10 million users a week – the more things can or can become.
But it is striking to hear and see how many clubhouse users spend their time at clubhouse talking about clubhouse: what is going to be clubhouse? How do people become power consumers in Clubhouse? Which existing business or industry will blow up Clubhouse?
This is the kind of discussion you probably would not see on early social networks. This is because people who joined networks like YouTube or Twitter or Facebook early on probably did not think about how they could turn their presence on the platform into money or cash or a career. This is not true right now, and now all the major networks are clogged with prospective influencers. The platforms still do not have formal gatekeepers – but by letting anyone and everyone in, the gates are blocked anyway.
That’s part of Clubhouse’s career, of course – maybe it’s YouTube in 2006, and you might become famous just because you show up. Or, alternatively, you can show up with a very clear idea of what you think you can do on a new platform. We are in a very outdated era of social media.
“If I started a podcast today, I would not start a podcast, I would just come here,” said Guy Raz, the very successful presenter of the How I built it podcast, tells a clubhouse room about … the future of clubhouse.
Clubhouse itself actively provides access to the user obsessed by clubhouse, by providing clubhouse users with ample opportunities to speak with Paul Davison, CEO. He holds a weekly presentation for new users, where he walks them through the basic characteristics of clubhouse functions and etiquette (it is not good to be racist or anti-Semitic; it is good to leave a clubhouse room quietly without to depart departure).
Davison is once again hosting a weekly live event for all clubhouse users, keeping them informed of product route maps and letting them know about their grip (which includes many concerns about privacy). Davison, a 44-year-old man who has made several attempts to create a social start before hitting the jackpot last year, is a talkative and ambassador of a brand – almost a polar opposite of the silent, gnomic Mark Zuckerberg and Jack Dorsey model.
More importantly, Davison is explicit about the idea that Clubhouse can become a useful or even profitable place for users to establish their store.
Twitter, Facebook and YouTube started without any real effort to help users develop their presence – and they certainly did not outline a way for early users to make money on their platforms. But when Davison announced a $ 100 million round of funding for Clubhouse in January, he pointed it out to show how users on the street could make money – perhaps selling tickets or subscribers in rooms they host, for example – and announcing that some of the money the company has now raised would go to a “Creator Awards Program” to be distributed to some power users offering popular rooms. This program has not started yet, but it will be interesting to see the kind of people that Clubhouse officially endorses with its cash.
One thing you won’t find much about Clubhouse: the young users who flocked to Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok early on. This is probably a result of the company’s growth strategy – which for the time being requires new users to have an invitation from existing users, which means you’re more likely to see people who look like the early tech and culture influencers. Clubhouse. first entered into, and less like their children. That could change down the road, or maybe Clubhouse would remain a social network for seniors who like to talk and listen instead of texting and fighting. Either way, the relative lack of youthfulness in Clubhouse has not gone unnoticed by the current base.
‘[Clubhouse users] feel like they missed the boat by breaking through on Instagram, “said comedian and activist Baratunde Thurston, who said he logged on to the network last year -” to claim my name “- and then rescued after he found the platform that was primarily populated with enterprise capitalists, but late last year he came back and found a new group of users who were at the same time ‘smart, skeptical, cautious and hungry.’ You have a group of relatively smart social users who have good questions, ‘he said.
There is also a very special section of Clubhouse-obsessed users: the venture capitalists at Andreessen Horowitz, one of the most powerful and conspicuous investment stores in Silicon Valley. They love the app so much that they sank millions of dollars into it by leading the $ 100 million funding round and using it as their own … clubhouse.
A16Z, as the company is known in Silicon Valley, is prominent and unapologetic throughout the clubhouse. Founders Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz offer a recurring interview program to “unhindered conversations” between themselves and other technology leaders. (There is some captivating: Andreessen blocks many users – often reporters he has also blocked on Twitter – from listening to any conversation he hosts in the app.) Horowitz’s wife, Felicia, hosts a weekly ‘dinner’ featuring guests like Oprah Winfrey includes. And the new A16Z partner, Sriram Krishnan, is co-hosting another recurring talk show featuring Elon Musk led by Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev as the GameStop saga unfolded. It is also supposed to one day host a conversation between Musk and Kanye West.
A16Z is also active behind the scenes: people familiar with Clubhouse say the company has played a prominent role in inviting celebrities to try out the app, and that Chris Lyons, who runs an A16Z fund, specifically aimed at promoting black participation in the technology. industry, used a point of it to use his social network to get prominent black celebrities like Kevin Hart to try out the app.
Clubhouse’s latest investment round already values the company at $ 1 billion. Clubhouse will therefore have to grow really, really like Twitter or Pinterest so that A16Z can get its own return on its money. But do you own a large portion of a popular platform, where you can invite an audience when you have thoughts you want to share? It’s worth something too.