SAN FRANCISCO – Facebook is building an audio chat product similar to the popular young Clubhouse app, according to two people with knowledge of the subject, as the social network plans to expand into new forms of communication.
The Clubhouse, a social networking app, has gained fame for allowing people to meet in audio chat rooms to talk about various topics. Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive, has been interested in forms of audio communication, people with knowledge of the subject said, and he appeared on the Clubhouse app on Sunday to talk about augmented and virtual reality.
Facebook executives asked employees to create a similar product, said the people, who were not authorized to speak publicly. The product is in its early stages of development, they said.
A Facebook spokeswoman declined to comment, as did a Clubhouse representative.
Facebook has a history of entering new technologies and pursuing different media that attract users, especially if this audience is young. Zuckerberg bought the photo sharing website Instagram, the messaging app WhatsApp and virtual reality company Oculus when they were all small start-ups.
Facebook is also known in Silicon Valley for being willing to clone its competitors. Instagram in 2016 copied one of the outstanding features of rival Snapchat, “Stories”, which allows users to share ephemeral videos and photos. Last year, Instagram launched “Reels”, a video product similar to TikTok. When the Zoom teleconferencing service became popular last year, Facebook quickly created Rooms, a group video chat service. And this year, Facebook is working on a product competing with Substack, the popular newsletter service.
Facebook got involved in experimental application development through its New Product Experimentation team. The team worked on podcast apps, travel apps and music apps, among others.
The Clubhouse, founded last year by entrepreneurs Paul Davison and Rohan Seth, has gained momentum among the Silicon Valley elite as a private, invitation-only iPhone app. The application is in “beta”, which means it is still in the testing stage before a broad release.
After signing up for the Clubhouse, users can create rooms dedicated to different topics. Instead of communicating by video or text, the Clubhouse’s preferred medium is voice chat. Room sizes range from intimate to thousands of people listening or participating. Sometimes it works as a hybrid of CB radio and 1980s party line.
The Clubhouse flourished in the pandemic, as people searched for ways to connect while remaining isolated from each other. The app is at the top of the Apple App Store ranking in countries like Germany, Italy, Japan and Turkey. At a recent internal meeting, Davison and Seth said the Clubhouse had 2 million weekly users.
Dozens of celebrities – from Drake and Tiffany Haddish to Jared Leto and an Instagram co-founder – appeared on the app, participating in different discussions and using the service to promote their projects.
Investors noticed. The Clubhouse raised $ 100 million in January in a $ 1 billion valuation, according to PitchBook. It was valued last year at $ 100 million. Its investors include venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz and more than 180 others, the company said.
International interest in the Clubhouse has proliferated. On Monday, the app was blocked in China after people there joined Taiwan, Hong Kong and other places to share ideas on topics ranging from the political to the mundane.
Tech titans have occasionally appeared in the Clubhouse. Last month, Elon Musk, the richest person in the world, agreed to be interviewed at the Clubhouse by a couple of users who present an evening talk show on the app called “Good Time”. This brought a surge of interest and the Clubhouse struggled to keep its service afloat.
On Sunday, the hosts of “Good Time” interviewed a Facebook executive when a surprise guest appeared: Mr. Zuckerberg. He spoke briefly about the future of augmented and virtual reality and Facebook’s plans, before leaving to return to his family.