These days, many users have surely seen stories and posts about Clubhouse, the current social trend. If you’re wondering what it is, why it’s become a trend, and why only some of us can access it, in this article, you’ll find all the answers!

What is Clubhouse and why is everyone talking about it?
Clubhouse is a social platform based on audio content: you know podcasts, right? Well, on this app, you can access interactive podcasts in real-time. Conversations are organized into thematic chats, called “rooms” within the platform, where you can navigate and choose whether to actively participate in the ongoing conversation or simply listen. To create a room, you just need to be signed up on the social platform.

Upon registration, you can select the topics you’re interested in and follow famous personalities, friends, and acquaintances. When a room is created, either by topic or by someone you follow, you’ll receive a notification and can choose whether or not to enter and participate.

The social was founded in April 2020, during the pandemic, by entrepreneur Paul Davison and former Google employee Rohan Seth, but it has exploded in Italy in recent weeks. One of its current peculiarities is its exclusivity. You can’t access the app unless you have an “invitation,” which can only be sent by someone who has been invited themselves. However, you can “reserve” a spot by registering your data and entering your future username, but without an invitation, you can’t start using Clubhouse.

Another peculiarity of Clubhouse is that it’s a voice-based social networking app entirely. No posts, no comments, no videos: on the platform, you talk, but most importantly, you listen. No other platform had ever structured its communication model solely on voice. Before Clubhouse, it was almost impossible to imagine a social capable of foregoing aesthetics, in a context of social platforms that prioritize the visualization of content like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.

Clubhouse: What’s it for?
Primarily, it’s for building a network: meeting people, following conversations of our favorite personalities, staying informed and updated on topics that interest us.

Clubhouse allows access to rooms discussing various topics, based on our preferences. This type of format becomes particularly suitable for developing group discussions through interactions that simulate real-life ones. People engage by telling stories, developing ideas, and meeting new people from around the world.

Who uses it?
One reason for its popularity is the strong presence of celebrities among its members. Clubhouse has become a trend thanks to some stars who have started using it, such as Oprah Winfrey and Drake. While exclusivity seems to be its winning strategy, it’s capturing the attention of people from politics, entertainment, and various cultural backgrounds. After Silicon Valley, from where it originates, recent examples of “big” usage include mayors of San Francisco, Miami, and Austin. They organized presentations to convey the value of technological evolution, and many users connected.

How does it work?
On Clubhouse, as we mentioned, there are themed chats called rooms, where participants can choose a topic or join organized themed chats. Users have two options: join a room or create one.

When entering a room, our microphone is muted, and we can listen to ongoing conversations, much like a podcast. Each room has its hierarchy, also visually represented by Clubhouse profile icons: at the top are moderators and invited guests, followed by people they follow, and finally the audience, people interested in the topic who join to listen to the ongoing conversation. To speak, a user can “raise their hand” by clicking on the appropriate icon at the bottom and wait for the moderator to give them the floor. The “Leave quietly” button allows exiting the room without causing disruption.

How to create a room?
Creating a room is straightforward; just choose the people to invite and the topic. You can also create and schedule rooms for future events, indicating the day and time.
Rooms can be of four types:

Open: Public rooms, visible to all, where any app user can enter.
Social: Visible rooms where only people followed by the moderators can enter.
Closed: Private rooms, visible and accessible only to those invited.
Club Rooms: Rooms created within a club.
The club is a thematic community open only to its members, managing regular events. The platform rewards active users; after organizing a room three times, you can create a club. Clubs cannot be created independently yet; you have to request it by filling out this form.

Being able to participate in conversations with famous people and influential figures adds a lot of charm to the emerging platform and is definitely one of the factors that has determined its rise. Another characteristic of the platform is its exclusivity; currently, it can only be used by Apple users.
A very important rule is “what is said on Clubhouse, stays on Clubhouse.” It’s not possible to download or share conversations and audio files, and it’s prohibited according to the platform’s policies.

How to get an invitation to Clubhouse?
To get an invitation, you need to be invited by another Clubhouse user. Each registered user has two invitations. You can’t enter Clubhouse without an invitation, but iPhone users can still download the app and “reserve” a username. According to the app’s creators, opening up to the general public is planned; the website states, “We’re building Clubhouse for everyone and working to make it available to the world as quickly as possible.”

Opportunities for businesses
Clubhouse could be a great opportunity for businesses. Currently, there are no business pages; Clubhouse focuses on dialogue and discussion, which could be useful and interesting even for a company to create a community and engage in conversations with customers and potential clients. The platform is continually evolving and may allow businesses to create business accounts in the future. For now, the best solution is to create Club Rooms with personal accounts.

Conclusions:
The advantage of this audio platform is that it allows passive, relaxed consumption, which can complement other activities. However, the flip side is that the audience’s level of attention is not always high. Extracting value from voice conversations requires a time investment. You have to choose a room, a topic, listen, and look for valuable content. This is a substantial difference from the social platforms we’re used to, which are based on immediately filterable and identifiable visual elements.

So, what will the future of Clubhouse be? A momentary flash in the pan, or will it be used on par with other social media? Will the platform continue to attract users when people can meet in person again?

We’ll have to wait for its evolution to find out!