Agora shares soar as investors try to drive the growth of the Clubhouse app

The invite-only social networking app, Clubhouse, was photographed on a smartphone on January 26, 2021 in Berlin, Germany.

Thomas Trutschel | Photothek | Getty Images

The Clubhouse invite-only audio social media app has exploded since its launch in 2020 and retail investors are taking notice.

Investors may be playing with the popularity of the private app by buying shares in Agora, which may have powered the app’s live streaming audio resources, and Clubhouse Media Group, which is not connected to the social media app, but has a similar name. Agora shares rose more than 44% on Monday, reaching a high of $ 81.48 per share. Clubhouse Media soared more than 116% to $ 17.99 a unit.

Spokesmen for Clubhouse and Agora did not immediately respond to a request for confirmation as to whether the application actually uses the Agora software.

Clubhouse, the social media app, is similar to a live, unfiltered podcast. You enter the app and can jump to different “rooms”, where live discussions take place on a variety of topics. The app is still in its infancy, and most discussions are about technology, entrepreneurship and other Silicon Valley issues.

The company, valued at $ 1 billion, has reported strong user growth since its inception, now more than 2 million. Most recently, he saw an increase in activity on Monday morning, Eastern Time, when Tesla CEO Elon Musk joined the platform to discuss a number of topics.

Musk’s arrival is likely to be behind Monday’s rise in shares in what some believe are associated companies, considering that Musk has a strong record of mentioning a publicly traded company and sending shares up. Last week, Musk’s nods to Etsy, CD Projekt, GameStop and even Bitcoin cryptocurrency pushed prices up.

Now, people want to monetize the growth of the Clubhouse.

“It’s not very well known, but the app was supposed to be created in the Agora application program interface (api) in a week. The ticker is also API. Now it has a model based on usage instead of subscription, so as the minutes increase , they earn more. If the reports are true, it looks like an unconventional way to play in the growth of the Clubhouse, “posted a user last week on Reddit’s Wall Street Bets forum, which is behind the recent GameStop craze.

At the same time, Clubhouse Media is jumping. The stock has risen more than six times so far. It is not clear whether investors are investing in the shares because they think it is the social media company or if they are buying shares assuming that others will believe it is the social media application.

Similar confusion happened recently in a confusion between Signal, the encrypted messaging app and Signal Advance. Before that, investors mixed Zoom Video Communications and Zoom Technologies.

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