The news comes following Twitter’s open testing of its version of Clubhouse, Spaces. Bloomberg reported that the social networking giant had talked with Clubhouse officials regarding a possible acquisition that would cost about $4 billion.
The Situation For Twitter
The conversations have however stalled, reportedly. The reason behind it is not clear. Details regarding which company approached first are also unclear. This should have signaled how each platform felt about the audio-only social networking space.
The newspaper further reported that $4B is being raised by Clubhouse as its valuation. The Twitter discussions may have been the cause behind this number or it might be advertising for potential buyers from Clubhouse.
The social audio app launched in 2020 and brought fame to the concept of being able to host audio sessions live. Regular folks, tech CEOs, and celebrities have all hosted rooms as well as tuned in since. Reportedly, the app has more than 10 million downloads even though it is invite-only and exclusively on iOS.
Clubhouse is also facing many potential rival versions from Slack, LinkedIn, Discord, Twitter, and Facebook. The other platforms have the advantage of large existing user bases as well as completely developed apps for Android and iOS.
Yet, Clubhouse is racing to keep its lead. The platform recruited heavily in the past months including an engineer specifically for the Android version. This week, the app has also launched tipping so that creators can earn on the platform.
Twitter Spaces, on the other hand, has already been released for Android and iOS. Twitter also has a version for PCs in the plans reportedly. The company is expected to make the app available for all later by the end of this month.
As such, there is little sense behind Twitter making the acquisition unless it planned to get rid of the competition altogether and bring in the user base of the trending app.
