| USA TODAY
Clubhouse: The social network that needs an invitation
Clubhouse is the latest social networking application on the market by invitation only. It has a podcast atmosphere and attracts the interest of technological icons.
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Julie Wenah was looking for comfort to share her thoughts when a friend invited her to join Clubhouse, a voice-only app, where users chat and debate topics ranging from politics, business, technology, professionals network, sports, music and religion.
Wenah’s anxiety and isolation increased, pushing her ‘near the edge,’ “she said when COVID-19 made her home in May. She felt sad and guilty after seeing nearly 2,000 of her co-workers fired because of the pandemic, and then traumatized after the murder of George Floyd and the ensuing aftermath.
‘Voice is a very intimate instrument. “There is something powerful about someone’s authenticity, vulnerability and strengths in one space,” Wenah said. “I think it helps to break down barriers and show that we are more alike than we are different.”
What is clubhouse?
The auditorium of the 11-month-old clubhouse creates quite a frenzy beyond its exclusive status. The app is only available to iPhone users because the invitations are so rare that they have even been offered for sale on eBay. The app with its unnoticed conversations is so popular worldwide that it is now banned in China. On Thursday there was a “What the hell is clubhouse?” discussion attended by hundreds in a mixture of Arabic and English.
The chats in different rooms take place in real time and at all times. Think of the voice-alone platform as intimate conference calls with possibly thousands of people from all walks of life. The phrase ‘Be authentic’ is constantly heard.
Wenah, who currently serves as a senior community adviser at Airbnb and was a policy adviser to the Obama administration, participated and moderated hundreds of rooms in the clubhouse, including ‘Testimony Tuesday’, where members tell everything they think.
Her ubiquitous presence has led to Wenah literally becoming a face of clubhouse. She appeared as the app’s third ‘icon’ when it became available in Apple’s App Store in August. She also witnessed the increase in popularity of the in-app app by more than 3,000 users to now see big figures like Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Oprah Winfrey, Drake and Brad Pitt appear.
Members can feel like they are tapping conversations or exchanging ideas with power players and celebs – for free. Chats can last for hours, as this interaction takes place at once in a world that is mostly frustrated and tired because they are socially isolated and worn out from attending video conferences all day long.
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Although Clubhouse did not disclose how many people used the app, it was downloaded more than 8 million times worldwide – more than double its total on February 1 – and 2.6 million downloads in the US alone, according to app tracker App Annie. Clubhouse is reportedly valued at $ 1 billion and raised just over $ 100 million in funding last month. Facebook is reportedly building an audio chat, and Twitter is working on a similar product called Spaces.
Major investors include leading Silicon Valley venture capitalists and early clubhouse users Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz. Horowitz’s wife, Felicia, who is very grateful for the help in diversifying members using the app, is leading a well-attended virtual dinner party on Saturday night.
A recent event focused on appreciating black art, which discusses topics such as street art and what is displayed in museums, as well as making art more accessible and affordable. Former president of Walt Disney Co., Michael Ovitz, Gayle King of CBS News, Van Jones, CNN analyst Tina Knowles (yes, Beyoncé’s mother) and hip hop impresario Fab 5 Freddy, among others.
Another popular attraction is a weekly ‘town hall’ with founders of clubhouses and series of entrepreneurs Paul Davison and Rohan Seth where they spend an hour on Sunday mornings asking questions from members. During a unique way to spend Valentine’s Day, 5,000 people – the maximum number in a clubhouse (and thousands of others listening in an “overflow” room) heard Davison provide quick answers to questions.
Clubhouse has room to ‘develop’
The app is currently exclusive to the iPhone. So when will the app be available to Android users? “We’re working on it,” Davison said. He also maintained that members are people, not clashes. “We want to make sure the person you’re talking to is the right person. That’s how it works for now,” Davison said.
Davison also responded to questions about his rules on misinformation, abuse, hate speech and bullying. Reports and comments have been published about misinformation, harassment and dangerous rhetoric against the LGBTQ community.
Davison reiterated the comment that appeared in a blog post last fall that Clubhouse does not tolerate any of these things and how it also adds security features and empowers the moderators. The app also has locking features and in-room reporting to give members more control over their safety.
Jennifer Grygiel, a social media professor at Syracuse University who has been using the app since January, hopes that Clubhouse will resolve any issues sooner rather than later as invitation membership increases.
‘At some point, they may be encouraged to address their business model issues before there are major issues in this room. We see it on other platforms, such as Facebook Live, where there is also real-time communication, ”said Grygiel. ‘The risk of bad actors can emerge as their base grows. Like any other place on the internet, it can be utilized. ”
But a former CEO of a multimillion-dollar company and regular clubhouse moderator believes the founders take everything members say into account while making big changes to the back of the app.
“They are growing and evolving,” said Kat Cole, former chief operating officer and president of Focus Brands, the parent company of the stores, Jamba Juice and Cinnabon. Cole said Clubhouse can make a variety of changes that members want, but it will attract attention from a purely listening and speaking experience. They had the discipline to add other tools, such as a calendar, and trust and security tools, to protect the space. They can always do more. ”
Cole, who lives in the Atlanta area and has nearly a million fans, said she’s not an investor in Clubhouse, but a passionate member. She offers and gives advice in several rooms, including one called ‘Leadership Lab’. On Friday, Cole and Wenah co-led a Leadership Lab session entitled “Unleashed: The Unapologetic Leader’s Guide” based on the critically acclaimed book by Harvard business professor and former Uber CEO Frances Frei, who also participated and asked questions asked.
A self-described multitasker, Cole, a married mother of two toddlers who is an angel investor, mentor and on the boards of several companies, said Clubhouse offers her more flexibility than she suggested after joining in May. “I can offer rooms with thought leaders who explore important issues, and I can participate in my problems, make something to eat and touch so many lives in the process.”
Cole likes the app’s “low friction and high ease of use.” She compares Clubhouse to attending a virtual conference, except you do not have to travel or be seen. “Because it’s a voice, I find it more nuanced, it feels more emotional,” she said.
Grygiel said Clubhouse’s strategy, from managing growth to hiring employees and earning money, would determine whether it would still be mentioned with Facebook and Twitter. “Networks alone are not paying the bills, and it is unclear who is now benefiting from the fact that he is in clubhouse, except for the early group who are already well connected,” Grygiel said.
The allure of clubhouse? Who came
Shortly after Clubhouse got its final round of funding, Musk raised eyebrows in the app to talk to Robin Ten, the controversial chief executive of Robinhood, about the GameStop unrest on Wall Street. Musk later tweeted he would try to get Kanye West and Russian President Vladimir Putin on the app.
Not long after Musk, Facebook CEO Zuckerberg appeared in Clubhouse praising virtual and augmented reality.
These startling observations prove that anyone can turn up, said Cliff Worley, a member of the clubhouse, a senior director of portfolio growth marketing for Kapor Capital in Oakland, California. He feverishly tried to listen to Musk in a packed room – and even an ‘overflow’ room – without luck. He approached a live stream on YouTube.
“It was like buying the hottest pair of sneakers online on an expiration date, and you can’t get into the app,” Worley said.
Grygiel is not sure about the lifespan of the app. Clubhouse can have a timeline. We’ll see. “
Worley, who moderated chat rooms with his former boss, Shark Tank star Daymond John, disagrees.
‘Clubhouse’ is a value-driven app. There is no hiding behind a very produced video or photo session with this, ”Worley said. “If your vote has no value, you will not have a significant following.”
Suezette Yasmin Robotham, a practitioner for diversity, equity and inclusion at a technology company in Silicon Valley, is the same.
“I think it created the opportunity to reinforce more voices on an equal playing field,” Robotham said. He is co-founder of a Black Love Club.
Clubhouse as a space for candid conversations
The app, of course, offers business opportunities. For Ruby Gadelrab, the founder of MDisrupt, a platform that connects digital health innovators with industry experts, she hopes to partner with a digital health founder she met in the app.
Gadelrab appreciates the app’s openness. She remembers an interesting discussion on eliminating health inequalities.
“It was one of the most super- and brutally-honest conversations about the differences and ways to resolve it,” Gadelrab said. “We can speak more openly, more freedom to speak.”
The honesty and vulnerability prompted Wenah, who has 1.5 million followers, to share her feelings in the app after Floyd’s death in Minneapolis in May. She became anxious because the Houston native has a childhood friend who knew Floyd, also a native of Houston.
Wenah, who was living in Oakland, California at the time, revealed to members of the clubhouse that she was afraid to walk a block to a nearby post office, fearing she might be charged because it was close to where a federal officer was fatally shot during a protest over the murder of Floyd. . A member of the clubhouse was so moved that she drove an hour from Silicon Valley to help Wenah overcome her fear.
She shared it in A Twitter thread in August, six months before the app’s popularity increased and it became the third icon for the app.
Last week she said: “I still feel a sense of healing, a sense of belonging and immediate community.”