Demand rises
In China, invitations are being sold on Alibaba’s second-hand market place Idle Fish, even though Clubhouse isn’t available in Apple’s app store in that country. In Japan investors, tech workers and the media have swarmed the service.
As of Tuesday, data analytics firm Sensor Tower said there were about 3.6 million installs worldwide for the app–only available on Apple’s iPhone–with 1.1 million of them coming in the last six days.
Spike in unrelated stock
Chinese tech firm Agora Inc, listed on Nasdaq, saw its shares jump 30% on media reports that it may be a technology partner to Clubhouse. Agora declined to comment while a Clubhouse spokeswoman declined to comment on questions about technology partners.
The San Francisco-based company’s latest round of financing in Jan. 24 valued the company at $1 billion, a source familiar with the matter said. The funding was led by Andreessen Horowitz, a leading Silicon Valley venture capital firm.
Clubby
The chat between Musk and Tenev took place on a regular Clubhouse event called “The Good Time Show.” Andreessen Horowitz didn’t reply to Reuters’ request for comment on this issue. However, Clubhouse CEO Paul Davidson told Bloomberg TV on Monday event hosts could choose who is allowed to listen, underscoring concerns about the clubby nature of the app.
Andreessen Horowitz separately said in a blog in January that it was launching new “media property,” adding to its already active podcasting and blogging activities. Clubhouse aspires to make the app widely available, and foresees business opportunities in subscriptions or tickets to events like the one Musk starred in.
Not allowed: racism, hate spech, sexism, abuse
It will have to contend with moderating the kind of site abuses, from hate speech to harassment, that major social media platforms face. Clubhouse has been criticized over reports of harassment and hate speech in its rooms, some of which are private and some public.
A spokeswoman for the app said it has already banned some individual users from the platform for violating its rules but declined to share more details. The company has said it does not allow racism, hate speech, sexism and abuse on the network, though it says it does allow “general rudeness.” It has said users who found clubs on the app will be able to set rules for their communities.
The Clubhouse spokeswoman said it currently has about 10 staff. The company has said it is investing in tools that detect and prevent abuse as well as features for users to moderate.
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