WELCOME TO THE CLUB

As the trustworthiness of social media platforms continues to face kick back, it is perhaps surprising to see the meteoric rise of Clubhouse.

An audio chat app, the platform is similar to a podcast enabling people to host virtual rooms where you can participate in conversations and interviews, but it is live and is accessible by invitation only.

Currently available on iPhone, the app has no DM function and the only way to connect is by voice.  However, it is directly linked to Instagram and can help build your following.

The main attraction of Clubhouse is that it enables you to have direct conversations with celebrities, entrepreneurs, and influencers and when Tesla’s CEO, Elon Musk featured on Clubhouse, it prompted worldwide attention and a scramble for invitations.

But like all platforms it’s not without its challenges – most importantly the chat rooms do not appear to be adequately moderated.   Conversations are apparently recorded unencrypted, and claimed to be deleted later, but there already have been reported incidents of harassment.

At the moment it is undoubtedly its exclusivity that is driving its popularity but ironically, it’s your privacy that you have to give up on joining by agreeing to share all your contacts with the app if you want to be able to invite others to join.

Long term as its users continue to grow it will be interesting to see how comfortable speakers are willing to be so ‘exposed’ in the virtual rooms.

And, with reports that Clubhouse is currently valued at $1 billion its founders are maybe not too bothered how long people are also willing to stay behind the red rope until their invitation to enter comes along.