Clubhouse opens access to Payments to over 60K creators

Announcing the first acceleration program Clubhouse Creator First for creators in March, Clubhouse launched the initial testing for its new monetization feature called ClubhousePayments that allows users to send money to their favorite content creators in early April.

Opening the feature to a thousand users in the first place, Clubhouse will roll out the Payments to more than 60 thousand users in the U.S. this weekend. The feature is planned to be rolled out to all users in the coming weeks. 

Clubhouse Payments is powered by Stripe. If you want to pay a Clubhouse creator, you can tap on their profile and click the “send money” button. In the pop-up window that appears, there are payment options, such as $5, $10 or $20. If you wish, you can choose the amount you want to send by clicking on “other”.

Clubhouse currently does not charge any commission on payments. The amount you choose goes directly to the creator, while the transaction fee you pay goes to Stripe.

By the way, Paul Davison warned users not to send money to the Clubhouse team members like himself. He explained that these payments will be donated to charities.

The Clubhouse’s announcement that it will not get a fee from the payments and that the payments sent to the team will be donated is actually about the App Store protocols. 

The App Store  made an exception to its rules in its agreement with Tencent in 2018. If the app is not making money in any way from the tips being sent to app creators or the donations, the App Store does not charge commission. 

In the future, Clubhouse plans to roll out new monetization features including subscription models, ticketed events and branded content in Clubhouse.

The interest shown in the acceleration program is very high right now. Clubhouse announced that it has received 5,000 applications for the acceleration program so far. The company will select 60 finalists from the submissions on April 23, and request the finalists to shoot a pilot episode within 3 weeks.

Today’s Townhall Highlights 📢

We’re blown away by your creativity! The Creator First Program received +5K applications 🙌 Also, excited to announce that we’ll be hosting a “Pilot Season” where 60 shows w/ various topics & formats will debut 1 episode over 3 weeks#CHTownhall

— Clubhouse (@joinClubhouse) April 11, 2021