Clubhouse: the only short summary you need to read
To say you are tired of social media is trendy. You are supposed to find people there boring and if they are famous, they just get trolled and disconnect, like Meghan Markle who announced she is closing her accounts. But another thing is if you can join Clubhouse – the new audio social media.
You cannot just download the app. Clubhouse is the place to be but you can only join by invitation! Moonshot.news has not been invited so we have to trust those who have been when they say that at the Clubhouse you find all the celebrities you read about from the IT and entertainment businesses. And Elon Musk is said to be there, you know, the owner of electric car maker Tesla and space rocket maker SpaceX who is mentioned as the richest man in the world when it’s not Amazon’s Jeff Bezos.
ONE GUEST
Media reports say that the Clubhouse already has some 600 000 users who one way or the other were invited. Each invited who becomes a member can invite only one more. There is not scrutinizing of member applications. Once invited, you are a member!
When Mooshot.news tried to download the app, we were informed that it not totally ready yet: ”If you don’t have an invite, you can reserve your username and we will get you on very soon”. Groucho Marx must have foreseen the difficulty of becoming a member of Clubhouse when he famously said: “I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member.”
The Clubhouse is described as an audio social media where people meet in “rooms” discussing whatever people in the “room” are interested in. If you don´t find the discussion interesting, you can open your own “room” and invite people to discuss what interests you. There are no likes or followers and no typed statements to regret. This is a social media for discussion! The only rules are said to be openminded and respectful.
STAY ON MUTE
The app is simple. Once you’re in you can join any chat room you fancy. There will be some scheduled events with arranged speakers listed in the app’s events calendar. You can keep your microphone on mute if you are shy or join in the conversation if you wish. And you can also have private chats in a chambre séparée.
Clubhouse was founded by people who got tired of video calls, isolation during the pandemic and who did not think the establisher social media are enough.
Clubhouse says it is “a social experience that is focused on connection, learning, and authentic conversations, where people close the app feeling better than they did when they opened it, because they have deepened friendships, met new people and learned”
THE FOUNDERS
Silicon Valley entrepreneur Paul Davison founded Clubhouse with Rohan Seth, a former Google engineer. Davison earlier made the social media app Highlight that invited people to share locations to create in-person connection.
Venture firm, Andreessen Horowitz has invested USD 10 million in Clubhouse and paid USD 2 million to buy shares from Clubhouse’s existing shareholders, The New York Times reported quoting a person with knowledge of the funding, who declined to be named because the details were confidential.
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