All major social media platforms are owned by Facebook, whose parent company has now changed its name to Meta. The Facebook application is the first large social media platform that was developed and became mainstream. Clubhouse is a new app for socializing via audio, by Alpha Exploration Co.
Clubhouse vs Facebook
The main difference between Clubhouse and Facebook is that Clubhouse is a social audio application whereas Facebook is a social media application meaning users can upload images and videos on Facebook but not on Clubhouse, where they can only post audio and host audio rooms. Facebook is also much older than Clubhouse.
Clubhouse was launched in March 2020 by Alpha Exploration Co. and quickly became very popular amassing over 34 million downloads and 10 million users. It is available on both iOS and Android. Clubhouse has been valued in the market at 4 Billion US Dollars and Twitter tried to acquire it but failed.
Facebook is a social networking application created by Mark Zuckerberg in 2004. It was the most downloaded application from 2010 to 2017. It has over 2.85 billion active monthly users. Since its inception, Facebook has also acquired Instagram and WhatsApp. It is a global giant registering 7th in terms of world internet usage.
Comparison Table Between Clubhouse and Facebook
| Parameters of Comparison | Clubhouse | |
| Launch Date | Clubhouse was initially released only on iOS in March 2020. | Facebook was launched on February 4, 2004, for Harvard students only. |
| User Base | It has a weekly user base of more than 10 million users. | It has more than 2.89 billion active monthly users. |
| Market Valuation | Clubhouse has become a unicorn company but is still much smaller than facebook. | Facebook is one of the most valued companies in existence, crossing a trillion dollars several times. |
| Company | Its parent company is known only for one application, which is Clubhouse. | Facebook owns many huge ventures such as Metaverse, Instagram. |
| Function | It is meant for users to host rooms and indulge in audio networking. | Users can network using profiles and share photos and videos of themselves or other things. |
What is Clubhouse?
Clubhouse is a social audio application that reached viral popularity in 2020 owing to its unique and first-of-a-kind attempt at making socializing convenient yet protected by the lack of video. Users of the application can engage with other users by talking to them as it is a VoIP application, meaning voice over internet protocol.
The primary feature of Clubhouse is the hosting of rooms that are categorized differently based on the basis of privacy where open rooms are the least private and can be joined by anyone. Social rooms and events are also created which offer different themed rooms where users can talk about certain topics. Users can follow their favorite creators who organize such rooms and collaborative events.
It also has a feature named Backchannel where users can interact via text also. Clubhouse features their top creators in a program and they can also monetize their content through Clubhouse payments. The application is available both for Android and iOS but released much earlier for iOS than Android, boasting a bigger user base on Android.
Clubhouse claims to take serious measures for maintaining user privacy, and all recordings in a room are automatically deleted after the session ends. Any complaints regarding offensive content are reviewed by Clubhouse by examining the audio of the room.
What is Facebook?
Facebook is the largest and the most worldwide known social media platform in existence. It was initially made by Mark Zuckerberg and his friends for Harvard students but was later released worldwide. It allows users to create their profiles using photos and videos and connect with friends and other connections.
Facebook was a massive phenomenon of the internet era and fueled social activities that could finally be carried out online, suddenly people all over the world could keep in touch using this application. It is integrated with most login-based applications these days and Facebook profiles can function as user profiles on many other platforms.
The company behind Facebook was known as Facebook Inc. but changed its name to Metaverse, and it is one of the world’s most valuable companies. Almost all the major social media applications are owned by Facebook. The Facebook app boasts more than 2 billion monthly active users, a number that has increased manifold during the years.
Facebook has been the face of many controversies involving user privacy and infringing on the privacy of users through microphones, mass surveillance, and political manipulation, but these claims have all been proved indecisive. The Facebook application can be used in 111 languages.
Main Differences Between Clubhouse and Facebook
- Facebook has existed much prior to and expanded much more than Clubhouse, being released in 2004 in comparison to 2020 for Clubhouse.
- Clubhouse is an audio-only platform whereas Facebook includes photos, videos, and other market and shop features as well.
- The Clubhouse application has around 8 million downloads whereas Facebook has over 500 million downloads and an equally wider user base.
- Clubhouse is a more dominant platform on Apple’s iOS whereas Facebook dominates the Google Android space.
- Unlike Clubhouse, Facebook has cloud storage where all the media uploaded by users is stored forever as long as the account is active, whereas Clubhouse immediately deletes all audio.
Conclusion
Social media has become an integral part of our daily lives and platforms that provide different entries to the social ecosystem. Clubhouse has clubs, rooms, and open mics where users can communicate verbally with other users while having the option to maintain their anonymity. It is an advanced social network whereas Facebook is the progenitor of social media networking and is responsible for the widespread use of media networking in modern times.
Even Facebook has audio-only live rooms, a feature similar to Clubhouse, but it cannot compete due to the genuine nature of Clubhouse and it comes first in the market for this type of platform.
References
- https://www.preprints.org/manuscript/202103.0503
- https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1745691612442904