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Clubhouse, where members join virtual rooms to have live, unscripted chats, said on Wednesday it would no longer be invitation-only or maintain a waitlist to join the app. All iOS and Android users in the US and abroad can now register.
The platform was launched in March 2020 as the pandemic hit the United States and many were stuck at home. It quickly became the topic of Silicon Valley conversation and captured the attention of larger social networks. In January 2021, Clubhouse was reportedly valued at $ 1 billion.
Clubhouse founders Paul Davison and Rohan Seth said in a January blog post that they plan to “scale up … as fast as possible and open it up to everyone soon.” An Android version of the app, which launched in May, has exceeded 10 million downloads, the company said on Wednesday.
“The invitation system was a big part of our early days,” Davison and Seth wrote in a blog post on Wednesday. They also said that adding people in waves helped “to grow the Clubhouse in a measured way.”
But the decision to open the platform comes as the app must not only compete with the return of IRL gatherings in the United States and other markets, but must also compete with newly launched products on platforms. more established forms of social media. Twitter started experimenting with “Spaces”
in December and Facebook launched Live Audio Rooms at the end of June.
According to data from Sensor Tower, which tracks mobile apps, Clubhouse has seen a significant drop in monthly iOS downloads in recent months, from its peak of 9.6 million downloads in February to just 719,000 in May. Overall, the app has reached around 29.8 million installs worldwide on the App Store and Google Play, according to Sensor Tower.
But Clubhouse suggested that engagement on the platform remains strong.
Clubhouse said that around 500,000 rooms are created on the platform daily, with the average user spending around an hour per day on the app. Last week, he announced an option to send direct messages to people on the Clubhouse app, called “Backchannel”. Some 90 million messages have been sent, the company said. (Previously, people had to be outside the platform to engage in a text conversation.)
During its short lifespan, Clubhouse has already faced a number of questions as to whether it is equipped to handle the moderation of damaging speech and abuse on its platform, with some members and critics publicly sharing. examples of
anti-semitism,
disinformation and harassment. Although the company has added some security features, concerns have also been expressed about measures intended to help.
“We know there will be many more ups and downs as we move forward, and competition from large networks will be fierce. But we believe the future is being created by optimists – and we are excited to continue to. work to build a different kind of social network, ”Davison and Seth wrote.
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