Last updated on November 24, 2020
A CEO of a luggage company steps down. An inside joke goes viral and raises over $200,000 for three charities. Two completely, unrelated stories that connect back to Clubhouse, a voice-based chat room and the latest app du jour. Venture capitalists are stumbling over themselves to invest in it. Members have been bragging on Twitter about the dozens of hours they’ve spent there. What’s it all about, and will the drama and backlash overwhelm the buzz?
- The Hot New Thing in Clubby Silicon Valley? An App Called Clubhouse [New York Times] “Clubhouse works by letting people join pop-up audio chat rooms that disappear when they end. Once in the rooms, users are segmented into tiers determined by moderators. Users can join any chat room, see who is speaking or listening, click into a profile page and follow others.
- Clubhouse Voice Chats Explained & How the Invite System Works [ScreenRant] “For now, it’s only downloadable to people who have been personally invited. That means its circle is almost entirely comprised of venture capitalists and silicon valley inhabitants. Due to their clout, a few celebrities have also been invited to the party.”
- What 👁👄👁.fm means for Silicon Valley [TechCrunch] “Gen Z is fed up with exclusive clubs and virtual velvet ropes. For tech insiders, Clubhouse is the place to be. For Gen Z outsiders, it’s the latest example of Black celebrity being used to make predominantly white founders and investors rich.”
- Silicon Valley Elite Discuss Journalists Having Too Much Power in Private App [Motherboard] “The exclusive users of Clubhouse on the call seemed to conceive of themselves as humble citizens preyed upon by corrupted elites cravenly lusting after money and power.”
From the Ohio Web Library:
- Griffith, Erin, and Taylor Lorenz. “The $100 Million, 2-Employee App.” New York Times, vol. 169, no. 58699, 20 May 2020, p. B1.
- “Brs Media Dotfm Launches Emoji Domain Names.” Online Product News, vol. 37, no. 3, Mar. 2018, p. 1
- Morris, David Z. “‘It Is What It Is’ Vibes on the Best and Worst of the Tech Hype Cycle.” Fortune.Com, July 2020, p. N.PAG.
