Clubhouse, the invitation-only audio chat app, exploded in popularity during the coronavirus pandemic when people could not get together in person—but now the once niche platform has far higher goals.
February 11,2021 Clubhouse, the invitation-only audio chat app, exploded in popularity during the coronavirus pandemic when people could not get together in person—but now the once niche platform has far higher goals. Launched less than a year ago, Clubhouse—which recently encountered a censorship hiccup in China—is looking to establish itself as the standard-bearer for digital audio. The concept is simple: once you’re invited to join, you can start or listen to conversations in digital „rooms,“ ranging from a major talk by someone famous to a chat within a small group. No posts, no photos, no videos—just audio. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg cropped up on the platform last week, talking about the technology of the future. SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk showed up late last month to talk about the GameStop trading frenzy. But the app was quickly blocked in China, where unfiltered conversations about normally taboo topics, such as democracy protests in Hong Kong and the mass detention of Muslim Uighurs in Xinjiang, ran afoul of government censors. The app, available only on Apple, thrives on the concept of FOMO—fear of missing out. If you’re not online when a conversation happens, you miss it. „I was very active in April and May,“ says Sheel Mohnot, a California investor with more than a million Clubhouse followers. „And then, you know, you get busy and other stuff was going on. And it’s just hard to make it a priority.“ „But once again, now, I would say, I’m back on pretty regularly,“ added Mohnot, who even had a second date on the platform—with two dozen-odd people listening and a psychologist in the background to comment on how it went. Beyond FOMO, Clubhouse—launched in March 2020 in Silicon Valley for the chosen few, but now used by about two million people every week—thrives on its portability.
