The Clubhouse study or how the apparent limitation stimulates creativity

The Clubhouse phenomenon, also known as the unicorn start-up, has generated the most heated conversations lately, but above all, over 2 million users worldwide.

Digitas Romania and Publicis Media conducted, between 9 – 14 February, a quick study on the Clubhouse phenomenon. Created on 809 respondents, the study identified usage-related data which do not exist yet for Romania. The data and conclusions are also presented in the infographic you will see below

Clubhouse is a social networking application based on audio chat, launched in 2020 by software developers Alpha Exploration Co. In December 2020, the app was valued at almost $100 million and then, on January 21, 2021, to reach 1 billion US dollars.

Founded in March 2020, the app had its “boom” only in February 2021, when Elon Musk hosted on Clubhouse the audio chat with Vlad Tenev, CEO of Robinhood. The event maximized the limits of the app’s chat space and was streamed live on YouTube. The event propelled Clubhouse into the startup charts and sparked a real battle for invitations.

Following the funds raised since its launch, Clubhouse is considered a Unicorn start-up, such as Airbnb, Uber and SpaceX.

How does it work?

Clubhouse creates a place where people can meet to host, listen to, and in some cases, participate in community conversations.

When a person opens the app, he is presented with a list of “rooms” as well as a list of active users in each room. That person can enter whichever space they want just by touching that room, or they can create their own.

So far, most Clubhouse rooms have a single-speaker, TED Talk style, while everyone else listens. Other users can join the conversation only when the moderator deems it appropriate, but this happens less often, depending on the discussion.

Dozens of conversations take place at the same time, allowing users to jump from one chat to another, from one speaker to another, depending on what they want.

A “New Type of Anything”

A New Type of Talent Exploration – without visual cues, the voice must fill the virtual space and dominate the camera.

A New Type of Content – the guest speaker brings together content creators who bring value to the discussion.

A New Type of Influencers – intelligence and the talent to attract interest wins, so influencers with communities on other platforms are forced to keep up. Successful international speakers have already moved to the Clubhouse, with a strict, hourly schedule, and are saying goodbye to Facebook. During live broadcasts. On Facebook.

A New Type of Attention – the rules of short-time content apply – the interval of 15-20 seconds. Many people enter a room attracted by the names of the sessions and the names of the speakers. If, however, they do not find anything interesting in that time interval (15-20 seconds), the migration becomes quite dynamic.

A New Privacy – unlike social networks where everything is public, each room in the Clubhouse gives the feeling of a private conversation.

A New Type of Social Formats – even though it seems that the audio format somehow limits creativity, speakers have shown enormous paradigm shifts – for example, silent networking is a room where some niche specialists (e.g., UX) enter. They do not speak, but only analyze the profiles of those who entered that session.

A New Type of Monetization – guest speakers will be paid in the future – a topic still debated in several rooms at this time. Clubhouse has already announced new upcoming features, such as tickets or subscriptions and payments directly from the app.

Evolution in Romania – the first data from Romania*

12.9% of iPhone users in Romania, from the urban area, already have Clubhouse.

This translates into 74,175 internet users from the urban environment who are already in the Clubhouse app (as of February 14).

Moreover, their number will double in the near future – 12.1% more people have stated their intention to join the app.

The Romanian Clubhouse profile

100% aged between 18-44 years, 46% of them being young professionals

46% men and 54% women

Users and connoisseurs of technology.

They appreciate most the usefulness of the application, the special type of access and the live factor – a new session takes place every hour.