What Is Clubhouse?
Social media quickly transitioned from the photo space to the video space without giving a lot of importance to audio content. Space was forgotten for a long time and after a considerable gap, it has made a comeback through the premium app called Clubhouse. In this article, we will discuss how to make App Like Clubhouse.
The clubhouse is, in essence, a live streaming audio chat app and has found the patronage of a lot of celebrities including people like Elon Musk.
It helps people have audio conversations over chat rooms and you can also listen to the discussions of others. The entry of the founder of SpaceX skyrocketed the value of the app and it reached over 2 million users, putting its valuation at around $1 billion.
The success of Clubhouse has opened up opportunities for entrepreneurs to explore this space. Let us look at in detail, the unique features, the basic features, the monetization models, and The other areas that can help you in building an app like Clubhouse.
What Makes Clubhouse Unique?
Clubhouse brims with the features that make it unique.
As you may have guessed, the most unique feature of Clubhouse is its format of content. While there have been sporadic instances of apps like SoundCloud and a few handfuls of podcast apps, nothing brings audio content sharing with such a garnish of premiumness.
It also has a robust celebrity presence and it also enables you to engage with experts and professionals within your industry. This is one of the very few platforms where there is no commitment of video involved and at the same time, the experience is live and engaging.
The Clubhouse app, in addition to the hosted audio shows, also has a flat platform where you can engage with others over real-time charts on a wide variety of subjects. It is this variety that attracts users to participate in the platform.
Perhaps the biggest selling point of Clubhouse is that the access, as of this article being written, is exclusive. You will need to have an invite to create an account at Clubhouse.
Another feature, although not completely unique, is the fact that it is available only for the iPhone. Since the iPhone by itself is a premium product, Clubhouse further strengthens its stance as a premium offering.
The Features Of An App Like ClubHouse
In addition to the unique features mentioned above, Clubhouse also has a lot of basic features because it is, in essence, a social media and chatting app. In addition to the basic social media features, Clubhouse also brings a few more features that make it one of the most perfect apps of the time.
– Profile
For any social media platform, onboarding is an important step. Users should be able to create their profiles using their email addresses or phone number. To keep up the authenticity, Clubhouse mandates that you enter your real name and provide a photo. The advantageous consequence of this authenticity is that right from the beginning, you can join any new room if you would like. All new users are muted when they enter but you can unmute if you would like to talk about something.
The profile should hold information about the user on the rooms that they are part of, the number of live audio stations they have participated in, and any other piece of information that indicates their preferences.
– The Hallway
The hallway of the Clubhouse app can be considered similar to the chat lobby. It is in the hallway that users can look at all the current chat rooms along with those that they follow. The hallway is the place that you would need to go if you would like to invite someone to join the app. The hallway also contains information on the upcoming rooms and also enables searching for other users by their name or by keyword.
– Starting Your Club
With Clubhouse, as soon as you onboard, you can start your own club or room. You will need to have the details like the name of the club, the logo or picture, a short description, and the categories of interest. A button to follow will automatically be added and the members will also be made public.
As an administrator, you can add or remove people, schedule conversations, and edit the club rules. Members can create private rooms in the club whereas followers can only have access to the open groups created by the administrator.
– Creating an Invitation
As we have already discussed, the invitation is the ticket to the exclusivity called Clubhouse. As a registered user, Clubhouse allows you to send invites to two other people, keeping it quite similar to how Gmail works in its early days. If you do not have an invite, you can still join Clubhouse by registering on a waiting list.
There have been instances where people could buy Clubhouse invites. People have been noticed selling their invites on platforms like eBay. There was a time when invites were available only starting at $20 and would even go as high as $20,000. Today, an invite sells for about $3.
– Notifications
One of the important factors that boost engagement on social media is notifications. Users should be notified if there are any upcoming events or if there is any new person who starts following a user. As an administrator, you can also be notified if there are any new members in your club and if someone has posted something.
Notifications help in increasing the time spent on your audio chat app like Clubhouse.
The Possible Monetization Models
No business is complete without a monetization model and an audio chatting app like Clubhouse is not an exception. There are different ways in which an app like Clubhouse can be monetized. It is to be remembered that there are instances when you can use more than one avenue for monetization.
Freemium: While the app and its most basic level can be made available for free, there are certain sections of the app that can only be accessed when the customer pays for such features. This is one of the most effective methods of monetization because it keeps up a good count of users and also provides an avenue to make money from premium content. This monetization model comes in handy when there are influencers and celebrities. Even a profit-sharing model can be worked out.
Basic Access: While not preferred by a lot of people, users can even be made to pay during the registration. This brings a couple of advantages. Your app will only be used by people who genuinely want to use it, and the quality of engagement is bound to be extremely good. It also keeps spammers away from your app, making the app healthy and a pleasure to use.
In-App Purchases: Users can make purchases of various items and features within the app. Some of these purchases could even include branded merchandise and special access passes.
Advertising: The biggest source of revenue not only for an app like Clubhouse but even for most other kinds of apps is the advertising earnings. The app can run ads provided by Google and Apple on their platform and they can get paid for every click or every impression of the ad.
The Tech/Development Elements
Creating an app like Clubhouse involves putting together a lot of elements on the technology front. The app needs to be garnished with a proper and intuitive interface. The cost of developing the app is proportional to the complexity of the design elements including but not limited to illustrations and animations.
You will also need to put together a proper backend that will take care of aspects like news feeds, engagements, and messaging. The backend should be scalable and should not compromise on security.
A robust mobile app is needed to ensure that the app remains handy at all times… Literally! You will need to make a decision on whether he will go for native app development or hybrid app and the number of platforms that you would like to target. Given today’s smartphone buying buttons, it is mandatory that you cater to both iOS and Android at least.
Conclusion
The relevance and profitability of an audio chat app like Clubhouse have already been established by its success and participation from celebrities and above everything, its valuation. Now is the time for an entrepreneur to explore the space of an audio chat social network. While the process of audio chat development can take quite some time, the availability of the Clubhouse clone makes the job easy.
These white label clones speed up the process of audio chat development, making it easy for the business person to launch it in the shortest possible time. All you need to do is get in touch with the company that specializes in Clubhouse like app development. They will take care to understand your requirements and make the app for all the platforms that you need. You are just probably days or at the maximum, weeks away from realizing the awesomeness and profitability of an app like Clubhouse.
