Facebook Clubhouse Copy – Everything you wanted to know

Does Facebook really have a Clubhouse Copy? The clubhouse is the newest startup to get cloned by Facebook, as the social media giant reveals a suite of new audio features. Who will use them? According to THEVERGE, Facebook, a company known for ripping its ideas from competitors, has reportedly set its sights on social audio.

Facebook Clubhouse Copy

The New York Times reports today that the company is working on a copycat of Clubhouse, the buzzy invite-only social audio startup. The Times reports the product is in the “early stages of development,” so it’s unclear if and when it might launch.

The news comes only five days after CEO Mark Zuckerberg joined Clubhouse and participated in a room to talk about the future of augmented and virtual reality. His presence on the app was shocking, given it’s a new social network, so the fact that Facebook might now be copying Clubhouse is no surprise.

The company has already been known to do so with multiple other apps, including, most infamously, Stories, which it took from Snapchat, and Reels, its TikTok competitor that launched last year.

Facebook Clubhouse Copy

How does Facebook Clubhouse look like?  Just like audio rooms are similar to Clubhouse or Twitter Spaces. Conversations stream live in the app, and room hosts can invite others up to speak with them. As a sign of just how important the feature is to Facebook, the app will promote the conversations at the top of the News Feed above Stories.

The new format also comes with creator-friendly features, like the ability to buy “stars,” the in-app gifts that help influencers make money from their streams.

With the new features, Facebook is the latest company to try to compete with Clubhouse, which has surged in popularity over the last year. Twitter has also been investing heavily in audio with Spaces, and Spotify just launched its take on the service with Greenroom.

What is a Clubhouse?

Can’t really pin but, imagine you have an app on your phone that allows you listen to other people’s live conversations. But not in a creepy way; these people desire to be heard. They may even be prominent, or at least interesting or knowledgeable (not guaranteed, however).

And you may even be given the opportunity to join the chat. Think of it as an audio-chat social network. Or as PCMag’s Jordan Minor says in our review, “What if Twitter was a podcast you lived inside of?”

When did Clubhouse Launch

Clubhouse launched (along with COVID in the US!) in March 2020. It became a big deal to a select few in part because of its initial invite-only exclusivity, much like a real-world club membership. In those early days, it was a tiny community, mainly consisting of venture capitalists.

After all, the company behind Clubhouse—Alpha Exploration Co.—received a $12 million investment from Andreessen Horowitz after two months of existence. It was quickly worth $100 million—and it only had 1,500 users at the time. (Valuation for Clubhouse as of April 2021: $4 billion.) You can get more details here.

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