By Andrew Edghill
- Clubhouse just raised $100M from investors including Andreessen Horowitz at a $1B valuation
- Black users have carved out new spaces and created innovative ways to use the Clubhouse app
Clubhouse, the audio-based social media app in private beta testing, is showing a promising future heavily influenced by Black folks showing up. With its invite-only status, Clubhouse’s initial users were mostly Silicon Valley venture capitalists and those in the tech industry. The platform just raised a $100 million round from investors including Andreessen Horowitz, claiming it had two million users last week. How has the Black community helped Clubhouse, that’s now reportedly reached unicorn status at a $1 billion valuation, become a cultural staple?
Why This Matters: By securing the Andreessen Horowitz funding, the app received a key supporter in Felicia Horowitz, helping to change the complexion and direction of discussions on the app today, along with an influx of new users. This has included Black entrepreneurs staying in the lane of tech and business, rooms creating intergenerational innovation spaces for Black women like the Colored Girls Liberation Lab, “Clubhouse after-dark” talk, and a whole Lion King audio-production.
According to the Pew Research Center, Black social media users are more likely to say these sites highlight important issues and give voice to underrepresented groups
The space Black users have carved out for themselves in Clubhouse, mirrors feelings they have long held on social media and this platform has found success because of it. According to the Pew Research Center, Black social media users are more likely to say these sites highlight important issues and give voice to underrepresented groups.
Situational Awareness: As Clubhouse continues its growth, it will be important that Black users’ have the ability to profit from the platform, and not just having their ingenuity being profited off of. Black people will continue to connect and organize in these spaces, in a time where physical-world contact is uneasy, so it will be interesting to see what is inevitably produced and monetized.
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Andrew Edghill is a writer and educator from northern New Jersey, living in Washington, D.C. He researches for a think tank, teaches a youth poetry workshop, and coaches soccer, He may get another job soon. | @acedghill
