Clubhouse

Submission 2,897

About

Clubhouse is a social media application that allows users to create and join audio chatrooms that delete after the chat ends.

History

In 2020, Clubhouse rolled out in a beta version, inviting influencers, celebrities and venture capitalists to join the application.

On April 18th, 2020, TechCrunch^[1] reported on the application. They wrote, "The most buzzy of these startups is Clubhouse, an audio-based social network where people can spontaneously jump into voice chat rooms together. You see the unlabeled rooms of all the people you follow, and you can join to talk or just listen along, milling around to find what interests you. High-energy rooms attract crowds while slower ones see participants slip out to join other chat circles."

On April 23rd, Twitter user @pitdesi tweeted,^[2] "I have spent an embarrassing amount of time in Clubhouse this week, mainly to the detriment of house party and twitter." They reported that they had logged more than nine hours in one week on the app (shown below, left) Days later, on April 26th, Twitter^[3] user @sriramkri began a thread of how often they were using Clubhouse. The first week shows 15 hours and 26 minutes of usage. By week four, they report using 30 hours and 15 minutes of usage (shown below, right).

On May 17th, rapper MC Hammer, who had been using the application, tweeted, in response to someone impersonating Elon Musk on the platform, "Real identity !!! Be accountable for your words and opinions" (shown below).

Two days later, the New York Times^[4] reported on the application. They wrote:

Since joining the app a week and a half ago, Ms. Baschez said, she has spent three to five hours a day on it. “Sure, you could be talking to people on the phone, but that just seems so weird,” she said. “You’re not forced to be part of the conversation the entire time on Clubhouse. You can just listen to other people talking about interesting subjects and jump in when you want.”

[…]

That’s during the day. After hours, Clubhouse is more like a rowdy dive bar. At around 10 nearly every night, 30 to 50 people form a room on the app where everyone is a host, moderator privileges are given freely, microphones are mostly unmuted and users swap their profile pictures in real time to memes and images related to the conversation.

Features

Clubhouse offers users the chance to join unlabeled chatrooms based on who they follow. People join these chatrooms and can either participate or listen in on the calls. The chat is deleted once the call is completed.