Clubhouse, the drop-in audio chat app, has been downloaded over 8 million times worldwide since it was launched in March 2020, according to mobile data and analytics firm App Annie. That’s despite the app remaining in invite-only beta and only being currently available on iOS. Its success has been attributed to a wider trend towards social audio apps, as well as some high-profile appearances on the app and behavioral changes caused by the pandemic.
App Annie says people have used social media platforms more during the pandemic to stay connected. Social media apps are said to have been downloaded over 9.6 billion times in 2020 and to account for “nearly 45% of all time spent on mobile.” Social audio apps are among those benefiting from this, with Clubhouse being the most notable success story but others also attracting users.
According to App Annie, Clubhouse had been downloaded 3.5 million times worldwide by February 1 and that had risen to 8.1 million by Feb 16. That rapid growth has included 2.6 million downloads in the US alone, but there is said to be strong interest in the UK, Germany, Japan, Brazil, and Turkey too. App Annie says the growth has been driven in part by appearances by well-known figures like Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg, whose platform is said to be working on its own version of Clubhouse.
Clubhouse: How Did It Get Here & What’s Next?
Clubhouse has self-admittedly “grown faster than expected” and says it is scaling “as fast as we can and open it up to everyone soon.” In a blog post in July last year it noted that there was a benefit to growing slowly, as the service can be tuned in the process. In addition, it noted that it was keen to get “robust community policies” in place and user experience features for the likes of safety and inclusion.
By October, it said it had “gone from a small community of beta testers to a growing network of communities” and judging by App Annie’s data it is now growing exponentially. In an update, it reiterated its intention for the app to be opened up to everyone as quickly as possible, including via the development of an Android app, which it said would be starting soon. Elsewhere, infrastructure is being scaled, more accessibility and localization features are being added, and so too are tools for user support, discovery, and content creation. While Clubhouse may appear somewhat exclusive as an invite-only iOS app, its intention is to be anything but and it is clearly keen to be available to all as soon as possible.
