Clubhouse by the Numbers (And the Numbers Might Surprise You)

Arik Hanson February 23, 2021

So much has been written about Clubhouse already–I hesitated to even try to add another viewpoint. However, as I continue to think about Clubhouse from a brand perspective, and field questions from clients on the topic, I wanted to create an informed opinion not based on my personal preferences, but based on the data.

So, I thought today we’d look at 5 pieces of data and what they tell us about the ultra-hot social media app so far (and its future).

Data point #1: Clubhouse currently has 6 million registered users

For context, Instagram has 1.2 billion users. TikTok=almost 700 million. Reddit=430 million. Quora=300 million.

So yes, Clubhouse is hot. And yes, it’s growing at a pretty fast clip right now. But, it still only has a very small fraction of the users that any of the other major networks have at this point. Advice: Worth monitoring, but probably not worth participating in quite yet.

Data point #2: 39% of users are 25-34 years old

Not that surprising, based on what I’ve seen so far on Clubhouse. And, not necessarily a bad thing at all. Sub-data point worth pointing out: 58% of all users live in the U.S. right now, so if you’re targeting an international audience at all, they’re not there en masse just yet. But, Clubhouse overall, definitely trending younger.

Data point #3: The biggest Clubhouse influencers/personalities lean tech, investment, author and celebrity

Just look at the list above. That’s what you see right? Take a peek inside Clubhouse–you’ll see a similar landscape. It’s kinda dominated right now by these folks + media (looking for stories, sharing perspectives) and smaller start-up founder types. That’s what I see so far. So, great for those niches, but that’s excluding a LOT of people and potential customers from a brand perspective.

Data point #4: It also heavily leans entrepreneur and business

So far, it seems like every third room is talking about something related to entrepreneurship or business. Lots and lots of business talk–whether its around startups, investing or leadership issues. Again, great if you’re targeting business-types, but that excludes a lot of different categories and segments.

Data point #5: Searches for “clubhouse app” increased by 99x over the last 6 months

Clubhouse has this inertia right now. It’s popular among a very vocal and social crowd on the web (see above). And, as a result, EVERYONE is talking about it. And, because of that, lots of people are searching for it to learn more about it. People are curious. They always want to know “what’s next” with social media. Clubhouse might be it! That FOMO is very strong right now and it’s driving so much interest. But, will that interest translate into use and time spent on the app? We don’t know that yet.

So, there are 5 data points that give you a pretty good picture of what Clubhouse is all about–at least right now.

My big lingering question about Clubhouse from a brand perspective right now centers on time. As in, is your audience spending (or going to spend) its time on Clubhouse?

You see from the data above who’s on there now. Pretty niche. Not all that diverse.

But also: Does your customer or prospect have the extra time required to spend on Clubhouse?

Because let’s face it, Clubhouse is a time-sucking app. Maybe even more so than TikTok.

And, from what we hear from most surveys and data sets, people don’t have a lot of that right now. Oh sure, we’re still at home more than we’d like to be, so yes, in theory, we have more time. But, people are still spending an awful lot of time on Facebook, Insta, YouTube, and TikTok. Will Clubhouse siphon off some of that time? We’ll see. But, I’m not so sure that’s the slam dunk some think it will be when it comes to audio.

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