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In the footsteps of Clubhouse: Facebook is following suit with audio products
Photo: Dado Ruvic / REUTERS
The success of the talk app Clubhouse apparently startled Facebook.
On Tuesday night, the company presented a similarly functioning and, according to the first screenshots, also similar-looking competitor service called "Live Audio Rooms".
It is installed directly in Facebook.
Facebook's new feature has a user base of potentially more than 2.5 billion people, while Clubhouse had to start from scratch and the app, according to the latest sensor tower data (which should only be understood as a guide), saw a drastic decline in its number in March Download numbers had to cope with.
“Live audio rooms” on Facebook are initially only tested in
Groups and for public figures, i.e. celebrities, as Facebook announced.
Via the Clubhouse app, users can take part in online discussion rounds, with both speakers and listeners.
The latter can also be brought onto the stage and thus included in the discussion.
The app quickly gained popularity in recent months after appearances by celebrities, among other things.
Facebook makes podcast suggestions based on user data
Facebook is now starting a larger-scale audio offensive.
In cooperation with the music streaming market leader Spotify, you will be able to listen to podcasts directly in the Facebook app.
Facebook wants to suggest individual podcasts based on its knowledge of the interests of users.
And with the “Soundbites” function, Facebook wants to introduce short audio contributions on its platform.
The company is known for copying functions of successful rivals into its own services if it fails to buy out the competing services.
The copies are not always successful: Facebook tried several times to imitate the photos from Snapchat that disappeared on their own, but the corresponding offers were discontinued.
Clubhouse is reportedly valued at $ 4 billion
Other social networks are currently also trying to compete with clubhouse products.
Reddit granted a first look at its function called Reddit Talk on Monday evening, which is also clearly reminiscent of Clubhouse.
Anyone who wants to try them out currently has to be put on a waiting list.
Twitter, on the other hand, has been rolling out its own function called Spaces for months.
Clubhouse had collected money from investors in order to cope with the onslaught of users.
According to the news agencies Bloomberg and Reuters, the company is currently valued at around four billion dollars (3.3 billion euros).
Clubhouse said it had "grown faster than expected".
A financing round was therefore already concluded in January.
With the fresh money, the company wants to strengthen its infrastructure, "support" the providers of the calls and "welcome more users".
There is still no Android version of the app, Clubhouse is only available on iOS.
pbe / AFP / Reuters
