Clubhouse app: what’s behind the hype?

A mixture of podcast and tele-con­fer­ence: the new social network Clubhouse promises to make dis­cus­sions on the Internet more pro­duc­tive again. This is supposed to work by people talking to each other - instead of just typing. With this in­no­v­a­tive approach and a clever marketing concept, Clubhouse caused a sensation within a few weeks. We explain what’s really behind the smart­phone app and why you need an in­vi­ta­tion to par­tic­i­pate.

Clubhouse is a free social network that users can access via a smart­phone app. While text, images, and videos dominate on Facebook and Twitter, Clubhouse is intended as an audio-only app. Users speak to one another directly, instead of texting at different times. This avoids a lot of mis­un­der­stand­ings. The contents on Clubhouse range from in­ter­est­ing lectures, lively dis­cus­sions, and business net­work­ing events.

The app was created by two Silicon Valley veterans: Paul Davison who gained much of his ex­pe­ri­ence working for Pinterest, and Rohan Seth who pre­vi­ous­ly worked for Google. Together they founded the company Alpha Ex­plo­ration Co., which oversees the de­vel­op­ment of the app. The first version of the app was released in the Apple AppStore in spring 2020. While initially only IT insiders and investors were in­ter­est­ed in Clubhouse, the app has become in­creas­ing­ly popular in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and social dis­tanc­ing measures.

The Clubhouse app initially was not well-known – at least in terms of user numbers. Despite the lack of members, the founders were able to attract large in­vest­ments early on. That guar­an­teed its speedy technical de­vel­op­ment and produced a very suc­cess­ful marketing strategy.

How did the app become so popular? For one, celebri­ties were attracted to the platform. For example, Oprah Winfrey and rapper Drake are reg­is­tered with Clubhouse as are MC Hammer, Estelle, Tiffany Haddish, Kevin Hart, Jared Leto, Meek Mill, Aston Kutcher, and many other Silicone Valley en­tre­pre­neurs. In Germany, for example, even high-ranking politi­cians have signed up to the new social network. This created a pull effect which is being de­lib­er­ate­ly slowed down.

Its de­vel­op­ers (at least initially) relied on ar­ti­fi­cial scarcity: to become a member of Clubhouse, you have to be invited by another user. Every new member only gets to hand out two in­vi­ta­tions. Only when you get involved on the platform, can you help other friends to join as members.

The hype sur­round­ing the Clubhouse app comes down to FOMO: Fear of missing out. The fear of missing out on an important de­vel­op­ment and not being an early adopter generates increased interest in the social network. At the same time, the slow growth ensures that servers and employees of Alpha Ex­plo­ration Co. are not over­loaded in one fell swoop. After all, the app is still in beta.

Want to become part of Clubhouse? Then you need an in­vi­ta­tion - or you can join a waiting list. An entry in the list ensures that you can save your desired username. Then you have to hope that a friend (who has you saved as a contact in their smart­phone) is already reg­is­tered with Clubhouse and approves the ap­pli­ca­tion. The user does not have to use one of their two in­vi­ta­tions for this.

Joining can be faster of course – if someone invites you directly. However, since each user initially can only give out two in­vi­ta­tions, the prob­a­bil­i­ty of being one of the chosen ones is rel­a­tive­ly low.

Other users are already trying to make a profit from the system: re­source­ful users, es­pe­cial­ly on eBay, are selling Clubhouse in­vi­ta­tions for more than $100 in some cases.

While Clubhouse has broken records and is becoming in­creas­ing­ly popular, criticism of the app has grown. Data pro­tec­tion problems are becoming ever more apparent. Logging into the app means that you’ll be sharing your private phone book. This is the only way the invite system can work. Data from third parties is sent to the platform without people having given their consent. This allows Clubhouse to create shadow profiles for people who are not in­ter­est­ed in the app at all. This and the fact that the data pro­tec­tion reg­u­la­tions are not for­mu­lat­ed clearly enough is con­tra­dic­to­ry - according to the opinion of several data pro­tec­tion­ists regarding the GDPR.

The handling of hate speech and fake news. is also con­tro­ver­sial. The app gives the im­pres­sion of a closed society, a con­ver­sa­tion behind closed doors. In fact, the company itself does not (yet) have any way to monitor content. It is up to the mod­er­a­tors of the chat rooms (any user) to ensure con­ver­sa­tions remain civil. This only works to a limited extent. The first com­plaints about anti-Semitism, racism and sexism have already been made in the USA. The app de­vel­op­ers were quick to react and are now making temporary record­ings of chats that can be monitored following a complaint. In­ci­den­tal­ly, the recording of con­ver­sa­tions is pro­hib­it­ed for users them­selves.