[3][4][5] Clubhouse began as a social media startup by Paul Davison and Rohan Seth in Fall 2019.
These investors included Ryan Hoover (Founder, Product Hunt), Balaji Srinivasan (Former CTO, Coinbase), James Beshara (Co-Founder, Tilt.com), and several venture capitalists, including a $12 million Series A investment from the venture capital firm, Andreessen Horowitz, in May 2020.
[10][11] In January 2021, CEO Paul Davison announced that the active weekly user base on the app consisted of approximately 2 million individuals.
[17] This significant growth in popularity was because celebrities such as Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg made appearances on the app.
[27][28] The app also received interest in a partnership, with the National Football League announcing a content deal that month;[29] Twitter Spaces later poached Clubhouse's exclusive NFL deal with 20 official NFL Spaces scheduled for the 2021-22 season.
[33][34] and on July 21, 2021, the company discarded its invitation system and made the application available to all, though a wait list for registration is still applied as user accounts will be created over time to manage new traffic.
[39] In April 2023, the company announced it was reducing its staff by half amid a "resetting" due to post-pandemic market shifts.
Listeners can notify the moderators of their intent to join the stage and speak by clicking on the "raise hand" icon.
Users can exit a room by tapping the "leave quietly" button or with the help of peace sign emoji.
[45][46] In August 2022, Clubhouse announced a feature called Houses, an invite-based version of the rooms.
Eligible users can create a club by going to their profile, press the "+" sign present in the "Member of" section.
A month later, after multiple failed attempts, the Clubhouse Backchannel finally launched on July 14, 2021.
The homepage of Clubhouse provides access to ongoing chat rooms, which are recommended based on the people and clubs that are followed by the user.
On that page, users can search for people and clubs to follow and also find conversations categorized by topics.
[54] This is the direct payment service provided by the app, which allows users to send money to content creators.
This is unique in app development because most companies hire a designer to create an icon, whereas Clubhouse harvests user photos instead.
Pierre Stanislas and Philippe Breuils have developed a free third-party desktop client (Mac and Windows) for Clubhouse, called Clubdeck.
[63] The company intends to monetize the platform via tips, paid events, subscriptions, and connecting creators with different brand partners.
[65] Two Clubhouse personalities were signed by Endeavor to talent representation contracts: Nait Jones and NYU Girls Roasting Tech Guys.
[66][67] Other social audio apps like Discord Stage Channels, Facebook Live Audio Rooms, Reddit Talk, Fanbase, Slack Huddles, Spotify Greenroom, Telegram Voice Chats, and Twitter Spaces all directly compete with Clubhouse.
[70][71] In April 2021, an SQL database with 1.3 million Clubhouse user records was published on a hacker forum.
Clubhouse issued a statement on the incident on social media, stating that they did not experience a breach of their systems.
[83][84] The Clubhouse Guidelines forbid the recording, transcription, reproduction, or sharing of conversations without explicit permission.
[86][87] Clubhouse is known to harbor various hate rallies, including those spreading antisemitism, Islamophobia, Hinduphobia, and incel ideology.
In May 2021, actor LaKeith Stanfield found himself moderating a room where some users shared antisemitic viewpoints.
[90] Following her anti-Muslim remarks in a room hosted by a PR consultant, far-right Internet personality Laura Loomer was suspended for Islamophobia.