Big news: Clubhouse is valued at $4B roughly one year after launching.

What is Clubhouse? Clubhouse is an audio-based social app where users host their own radio show.

Key details for Clubhouse:
1) Launched in March 2020
2) 10M+ downloads
3) Invite only
4) iPhone only

Clubhouse valuation history according to Bloomberg:
1) May-20 – $100M
2) Jan-21 – $1B
3) Apr-21 – $4B

Clubhouse user growth according to Backlinko:
1) May-20 – 1.5K
2) Dec-20 – 600K
3) Jan-21 – 2M
4) Feb-21 – 10M

Big question #1: How will Clubhouse make money?

Four primary revenue streams (as of now) for Clubhouse:
1) Cut of admission fee to rooms
2) Membership dues
3) Tips
4) Branded sponsorships for rooms

Smart take: The team at SparrowAdvisors refers to Clubhouse as “the first post-advertising social platform.”

Big question #2: Who are potential competitors?

Potential competitors for Clubhouse:
1) Twitter (Spaces)
2) Facebook (Live Audio Rooms)
3) Slack
4) Discord
5) LinkedIn
6) Spotify

Big question #3: What is the difference between Clubhouse and podcasts?

Quick answer: Clubhouse is live and interactive. It is not hard to see a world where the live show with audience interaction lives on as an on-demand podcast.

Quote from Ben Thompson – Author/Founder @ Stratechery:
“This is not to say that Clubhouse means the doom of podcasts; quite the opposite, in fact. Radio and recordings had a symbiotic relationship: you heard the new song or artist on the radio, and then you bought their record or CD. It is easy to imagine Clubhouse and podcasts having a similar relationship, at least in part; one important difference is that while radio was scarce, by virtue of its dependence on broadcast towers, Clubhouse, thanks to its ease-of-use, will in the long run likely produce far more audio content than the podcast ecosystem. That makes the discovery and recommendation bits noted above particularly important.”

More #1: The Next Phase of Social? Listen Closely

More #2: Facebook’s Audio Announcements, Facebook and Creators