Bengaluru: Clubhouse, an audio-based social network is drawing rave reviews, as startup entrepreneurs, investors and tech aficionados log onto the exclusive cohort made popular by Silicon Valley elites including billionaire Elon Musk<\/a>. The buzzy live-voice app, where conversations are often off-the-record, was founded last year and has its valuation pegged at $1 billion. It is backed by US venture capitalists Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz. On Clubhouse tonight at 10pm LA time<\/p>— Elon Musk (@elonmusk)1612126570000<\/a><\/blockquote><\/div> I'm planning a Clubhouse room for Thursday where I'm going to try to make actual hiring happen. Planning to focus o… https:\/\/t.co\/AY3UFEt15j<\/p>— Sidu Ponnappa (@ponnappa)1611985008000<\/a><\/blockquote><\/div> I figured many people couldn’t join @elonmusk clubhouse room. So will share notes here:<\/p>— Kunal Shah (@kunalb11)1612159334000<\/a><\/blockquote><\/div>
World over, the app is currently available only for Apple ioS users. In India, it recorded over 8,000 downloads last month and triggered passionate debate amongst startup mavens torn between listening to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's budget speech or plugging into Musk’s high-profile tete-a-tete with Vlad Tenev, the chief of trading powerhouse Robinhood Markets, on the saga of the meme stocks.
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India has so far seen a total of 12,000 Clubhouse downloads, according to app analytics firm Sensor Tower.
“'Let’s do a Clubhouse' has become a phrase now, it means 'let's get together and talk',” said Snapdeal's co-founder and angel investor Kunal Bahl, who was recently a guest on a Clubhouse session. “It is a new space for knowledge and opinion consumption that has been created.”
And what’s more, it can be accessed only through an exclusive invite boosting the aspirational quotient of the digital salon, that is expected to offer Android accessibility soon.
Bahl believes that Clubhouse’s live audio format offers an element of authenticity that will spawn a new generation of creators who will monetise their skill and knowledge about specific topics that others value.
Since its launch in March last year, Clubhouse has been downloaded 2.4 million times globally on Apple’s App Store. Nearly 1.3 million of those downloads came in January alone, US publication AdWeek reported on Jan. 26, quoting Sensor Tower data, underlining its status as one of the world's most coveted virtual clubs.
In India, those interacting on the elite platform include fintech leaders like Cred’s Kunal Shah, Zerodha’s Nithin Kamath and RazorPay’s Harshil Mathur, edtech entrepreneurs Gaurav Munjal of Unacademy and Zeeshan Hayath of Toppr as well as Farid Ehsan, co-founder of ShareChat.
Clubhouse works by allowing people to join pop-up audio chat rooms that disappear when the discussions end. Once in the rooms, users are segmented by moderators. Users can join any chat room, see who is speaking or listening. They can also ask questions if permitted.