SOCIAL NETWORKS: About two million users visit Clubhouse every week
Facebook has embarked on the design of audio chat rooms on the model of the Clubhouse application, already copied by Twitter. The Clubhouse platform, launched last spring, is only available on Apple-branded devices and by invitation but is already visited by some two million users every week.
They have access to conversations in small or large committee, on a wide variety of subjects, which they can listen to like podcasts, but live and with the possibility of participating. “Facebook executives have asked employees to create a similar product, known internally as the working Fireside,” The New York Times reported on Wednesday.
The Clubhouse app valued at $ 1 billion
A sign that the audio format could become a fundamental trend, Twitter launched its “Spaces” at the end of last year, which it is testing with a few hundred users. These are also lounges where a dozen people can discuss while being listened to by an apparently infinite number of participants.
Clubhouse has carried out several fundraising events. The latter increased its valuation to around a billion dollars, according to the specialized site The Information. The application has experienced renewed success in recent weeks, in particular thanks to interviews with distinguished guests, including Mark Zuckerberg, the boss of Facebook. This Wednesday, Elon Musk, another hot Californian entrepreneur, announced on Twitter that he would be chatting soon on Clubhouse with rapper Kanye West.
Facebook is always on the lookout for the latest trends in the social media market. The technology giant has thus bought WhatsApp messaging and the Instagram application. In 2020, following the phenomenon of meetings on the Zoom videoconferencing software, it launched lounges where users can meet for group discussions, such as virtual parties. Instagram also recently created the “Reels”, short creative videos very similar to those of TikTok, the application whose popularity has exploded even beyond the youngest, its favourite audience.