Good morning, let’s plan an attack on this-and-that ideology today.” That’s what Twitter has become: A mud-slinging match with a few seemingly powerless referees to officiate. Users are happy to spend more time playing this game rather than focusing on work or family. The constructive voices of Twitter are finding new platforms where it’s more about “let’s get business going once the pandemic situation eases up” or “let’s think of a new business idea”.

Enter Clubhouse, one of the most interesting platforms to emerge in the last few years. Instead of text or video, the reliance is on voice. Is audio the future of social media? Is the future of social media more to do with particular needs and hobbies than an open platform for random conversations?

Less than a year old, Clubhouse (currently available on iOS) has latched on to Facebook’s restricted initial membership model, which, in fact, created a buzz while minimising technical issues. Unlike other apps, Clubhouse is where venture capitalists mingle and in case you have an idea or planning a big project, they can be of help.

The idea is pretty simple. First, fetch an invite to the app. All you have to do is register and choose a handle (like on Twitter) for yourself. Have patience. Chances are that somebody will extend you an invitation and let you in, like it happened to me within one hour.

Once in, you can follow people or clubs or topics. There are rooms that you can enter and follow people or friends who are speaking in there. The chat rooms have moderators while users have to raise hands when they want to speak. It’s up to the moderator to agree.

Investments are rolling in

A bigger question is whether the platform is taking off. A few days ago, Elon Musk was on Clubhouse. Of course, Musk is known for giving interviews to a variety of mainstream outlets but his presence on Clubhouse is a way of validating the platform. In was late into the night (ET time) but Musk’s room soon hit the cap of 5,000 concurrent listeners.

He appeared on The Good Time Show, an event hosted by the husband-and-wife team of Sriram Krishnan and Aarthi Ramamurthy. The conversation soon turned interesting when Robinhood CEO Vladimir Tenev joined and he was questioned about the recent Wall Street chaos.

More than the conversation, it showed the immense potential of the medium. All the conversations on Clubhouse are live and not recorded, so you’re either in the room where it happens or not.

At the moment the app has no method for monetisation. It’s free, there are no ads or direct payments to creators. But make no mistake, there is enough investments rolling in and creators are jumping in.

Silicon Valley investor Marc Andreessen’s venture firm, Andreessen Horowitz, has made a solid investment. While creators like comedian Leah Lamarr has hosted a stand-up comedy show on Clubhouse in mid-January with a number of comedians that drew an audience of 1,300 people. Then there is someone like 27-year-old Jessica Williamson who has a six-figure business called Ete Swimwear. Williamson recently received an invitation to join Clubhouse and quickly understood the power of the app which enabled her to speak directly with many movers and shakers.

Clubhouse is as much a mover as Medium when it launched in 2012. It attracted attention because of its simple design and it filled a hole in the media market — blog without any expectation or apologise for long delays between posts. Now is the generation of podcasts. But how long can you bear one personality interviewing another? Clubhouse gives an audience who are listening in.

In 2019, we came across a platform called Justori, started by Pratik Ghosh, who grew up in Calcutta. “Justori is like a radio station in your palm. Without anybody’s assistance you can produce, direct, play an actor in the show or edit any voice-based programme, which can be memories of, say, your family members or a social cause or just a thought that one cannot share with people known to them,” Ghosh had told us.

Sadly, securing funding in big scoops is an issue for most. For Clubhouse, things are far better and the idea seems to have found takers. Let’s just hope it can continue to scale up.

What we like about Clubhouse

• You can be audience to a conversation and ask questions
• There is no trolling
• It’s an audio-only platform, meaning you don’t have to worry about videos
• There are no ads
• You can find conversations that interest you
• Excellent design
• It has the potential to become an alternative to Twitter