What is the Clubhouse that makes the technology world stir?

The world of social media is changing, and perhaps the best example of this trend is the emergence of the Clubhouse app. Although only 11 months old, Clubhouse has become a craze for many technology and pop culture lovers.

Gradually, the user community considers this application as a symbol, a square where participants have the freedom to express personal opinions.

What is Clubhouse?

Instead of using writing as a means of communication, the Clubhouse allows people to gather in audio chat rooms to discuss different topics. The New York Times reports that conversations appearing on the Clubhouse could involve astrophysics, geopolitics or cosmic poetry. It can be said that Clubhouse has no content restrictions, so users can join thousands of chat rooms every day if they want.

Clubhouse is still in the development stage and is not officially completed. (Photo: Clubhouse).

According to Apptopia's statistics, in January 2021, this application attracted nearly 4 million downloads. In addition, Clubhouse is also joined by famous characters such as: Ai Weiwei, Lindsay Lohan and Roger Stone. Even billionaire Elon Musk sent an invitation to join the application to Russian President Vladimir V.Putin.

Clubhouse is changing the social network model

The appearance of the Clubhouse sparked a heated debate. Many believe that audio is gradually replacing text, photos, and videos as the new tool for social media.

'This is a huge change in the way social media works. I believe Clubhouse is opening a whole new chapter in history," said Dave Morin, founder of the social network Path and one of the investors in Clubhouse.

The wave of the Clubhouse uprising was swift. In May 2020, the app only had a few thousand users, most of them had to be invited by old users and were not widely available. The thirst for Clubhouse is so strong that former users are willing to sell invitations to use their applications on eBay for up to $ 89.

This audio chat app is capturing all the eyes of Silicon Valley. (Image: Getty).

Realizing the miraculous growth of this nascent app, some media companies like Barstool Sports have created Clubhouse accounts and plan to hire a 'senior app manager'.

All eyes are on the tiny San Francisco startup. Clubhouse was founded by two entrepreneurs Paul Davison and Rohan Seth with about a dozen employees. Before the craze created by the 'brainchild' , the application team struggled to handle the spike in traffic. On February 10, the application even encountered an error.

In early 2021, Clubhouse raised an investment amount of up to 100 million USD. In addition, the application of two entrepreneurs from San Francisco is valued at $ 1 billion. The presence of Clubhouse has had a great impact on the world of social media, giants like Facebook or Twitter have had to start researching similar models to create a competitive advantage.

New headache of international authorities

Unlimited content is not necessarily a good thing. The app is constantly facing a flood of complaints regarding harassment, misinformation or privacy. Also in January 2021, a female doctor participating in Clubhouse denounced another user's case spreading a conspiracy theory about the Covid-19 vaccine, and urged the community to refuse vaccination.

Clubhouse is becoming a big question mark for German and Italian authorities. Some European regulators fear Clubhouse cannot meet requirements for user data protection. In early February, the Chinese government made a move to block this application in the territory.

New playground for content creators

Clubhouse is following in the startup footsteps of Silicon Valley giants. The tremendous growth of this application is not without its accompanying messy problems. This is a social media company founded in the United States after many years. Before that, the social network was becoming the playground of TikTok, the app owned by Chinese company Bytedance.

'It's crazy, we have a lot of people involved,' said Davison, the app's co-founder.

Paul Davison, co-founder of the Clubhouse app. (Photo: New York Times).

The two Clubhouse founders first met in 2011. In 2019, together they built Talkshow, the precursor to Clubhouse. However, it was not until March 2020, that the Clubhouse application was officially launched. Similar to TikTok or other social networking applications, Clubhouse has gradually gained attention during the time of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The quick app features Silicon Valley venture capitalists like Marc Andreessen and business partner Ben Horowitz. Not long after, many famous personalities such as Oprah Winfrey, MC Hammer or musician John Mayer also quickly joined the Clubhouse.

In May 2020, Andreessen and Horowitz's joint venture, Andreessen Horowitz, invested $10 million in Clubhouse, and valued the app at $100 million. At the time, the app startup had only two employees.

The app has attracted many content creators on TikTok and YouTube. In December 2020, Clubhouse announced a 'creator pilot program' with the goal of offering a new in-app monetization model.

The reverse side of the Clubhouse

However, the downside of this application gradually revealed, many users said that Clubhouse is becoming a place where women and people of color are criticized, affected by anti-Semitism, homophobia and racism. motion.

Porsha Belle, 32, a Clubhouse user in Houston, said that after she spoke out about misconduct on the app, people set up chat rooms to encourage each other to report her accounts. Belle's account was immediately suspended on February 8.

Clubhouse is gradually revealing worrying shortcomings. (Photo: Quartz).

'My page is suspended while the bullies are free to harass others,' Bell said she tried to appeal to the company but to no avail.

Rahchelle Dooley, a social media manager with a hearing impairment in Texas, said she was regularly bullied and kicked out of some Clubhouse rooms.

'They said why is this deaf woman using an audio app. I seemed to be stunned and started to cry,'" Dooley shared.

Or, according to Kimberly Ellis, 48, a scholar of American and African studies at Carnegie Mellon University, in some Clubhouse chat rooms, instead of giving financial advice, many users are enticed. into multi-level marketing models.

During the Sunday's Clubhouse discussion, the Davison co-founder said the company has clear rules against the spread of misinformation, hate speech, abuse and bullying. The startup also announced that it has added advisors, moderators, and safety features since 2020.