(Hypebot) — Clubhouse, the new social audio platform everyone’s been buzzing about, is hoping to hold onto its recently cultivated creative community through a new, fan-powered monetization feature.
Guest post by James Shotwell of Haulix
As competition in the audio conversation space rises, Clubhouse hopes to retain its creative community with a new, fan-powered monetization feature.
Clubhouse, the wildly successful and exclusive social media based around audio conversations, is making it easy for creators to earn money on its platform. A new tool called Clubhouse Payments recently entered the testing phase. The feature will allow users to send money directly to creators through Clubhouse, and the company is promising not to take a commission on the exchange.
Here’s how it works:
- To send a payment in Clubhouse, just tap on the profile of a creator (who has the feature enabled) and tap “Send Money”.
- Enter the amount you would like to send them. The first time you do this, you’ll be asked to register a credit or debit card.
- 100% of the payment will go to the creator. The person sending the money will also be charged a small card processing fee, which will go directly to our payment processing partner, Stripe. Clubhouse will take nothing.
Clubhouse is doing everything in its power to build and retain its community. With the recent news that Spotify will launch a direct competitor, the social media platform is likely feeling pressured to prove its long-term value. The existence of Clubhouse Payments sends a message to creators that the service will support their work. The decision to forgo any commissions from payments infers that the company hopes to nurture those relationships as much as possible.
Creator monetization, with a cut for the platform, has led to the growth of large businesses. Cameo, a startup that sends personalized messages from creators and celebrities, takes about a 25% cut of each video sold on its platform. The startup reached unicorn status last week with a $100 million raise. OnlyFans, another platform that helps creators directly raise money from fans in exchange for paywalled contact, is projecting $1 billion in revenue for 2021.
With Spotify recently making headlines denying requests that they pay creators more, Clubhouse Payments’ timing is perfect. However, whether or not the company remains a fixture of the cultural conversation remains to be seen.
