Clubhouse Payments just fired shots at its big rivals

Budding social network Clubhouse is almost in danger of being displaced even before it could get a wider rollout. Its popularity has caught the attention of the likes of Facebook and Twitter who, rather than just gobble up the young network, have started to create their own audio-centric platforms. The competition is forcing Clubhouse to step up its act in return and its latest new feature makes it potentially more profitable, not to mention more enticing for anyone still interesting in buying the startup.

Whenever the exchange of money enters the equation, you can be sure things will get a bit messy. It's at that point that something starts to look lucrative which, in turn, can raise the value of the service. Now that Clubhouse has introduced its Payments system, you can be sure that there will be more companies interested in eventually acquiring it.

Clubhouse Payments is somewhat like their own version of Patreon, OnlyFans, Ko-fi, and similar platforms. The idea is that fans and people can send money to support or tip creators, giving Clubhouse that juicy monetization capability. Eventually, however, Clubhouse plans on allowing all users, even non-creators, to receive money.

The Payments system is actually powered by Stripe so Clubhouse itself isn't managing the transfer of money. In fact, it says that it takes no cut in those direct payments, unlike the platforms mentioned earlier, and creators receive 100% of the payment. That said, Stripe does exact a processing fee so users will actually be paying for more than what they want to give.

Clubhouse Payments puts the new social network a bit ahead of the game but it will only be a matter of time before others try to follow suit. Facebook, in particular, seems to actually be in a favorable position in this regard, having its own Facebook Pay and similar systems across its social media empire.