Clubhouse Payments Launched to Help Creators Monetise Their Content

Clubhouse audio-chat app said on Monday it will launch a monetisation feature for its creators on the platform and that it will not receive any payment from it.

Starting Monday, all users will be able to send payments through the platform, Clubhouse said. The feature to receive payments will initially be available only to a small test group, and later rolled out to other customers.

Users can send payment to Clubhouse creators who have the feature enabled, by tapping a Send Money option. The audio-based social network company said a small card processing fee will be charged by its payment processing partner, Stripe.

The San Francisco-based company, whose app lets people gather in audio chatrooms to discuss different topics, requires newcomers to be invited by existing users before they can join.

The app saw its global user numbers soar after Tesla Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk and Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev held a surprise discussion on the platform.

In the year since it started, Clubhouse has faced criticism over reports of misogyny, anti-Semitism, and COVID-19 misinformation on the platform despite rules against racism, hate speech, abuse, and false information.

Currently only available on iOS, Clubhouse will also be launched on the Android platform, as per CEO and co-founder Paul Davison. It may take a while before it is rolled out to the general public. The announcement comes after many Android users claimed to be hit by the BlackRock malware after downloading malicious Clubhouse apps from Google Play. Clubhouse was launched in April 2020 and is currently available only on iOS. It tasted great popularity recently, riding on support from industry leaders such as Tesla CEO Elon Musk. There is, however, no news of a desktop version arriving anytime soon.

Davison said at a townhall meeting last month that the company is working on expanding to a wider audience. Clubhouse also claims to reduce the number of foreign feeds shown to users so that they can gain better access in finding their friends and quality content.

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