Clubhouse Won Over Elon Musk. Now It’s Conquering the World.

“This is awesome. I didn’t even know it existed a week ago.” That’s how a lot of people are reacting to Clubhouse, the social-media startup that’s becoming a sensation. Except in this case, the new fan was Elon Musk, who had just made his first appearance on the app, a voice-and-audio driven platform that lets people hold live discussions based on any number of topics and interests, with thousands sometimes in attendance. Musk was a Jan. 31 guest on “Good Time,” a talk show co-led by a panel of venture capitalists and a Facebook Inc. tech executive. Days later, Facebook Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg made a surprise appearance on the same program.

Last month, I wrote about how Clubhouse was poised to become the next big social media powerhouse, citing the doubling of its weekly active user base to 2 million over a couple of weeks in January as a sign of its booming popularity. This latest wave of influential new users — from technology titans such as Musk and Zuckerberg to political figures and leaders in entertainment — is driving another wave of exponential growth for Clubhouse, not only in the U.S. but around the world.

On Sunday, co-founder Paul Davison said the service reached 10 million weekly active users, which means its user base has blossomed fivefold in a month. These numbers are all the more impressive given that the app still requires an invitation from a current user and is available only on iPhones (an Android version is planned). Davison also noted that overseas markets were key contributors in the company’s latest surge, with the app rocketing to the top of the App Store charts in dozens of countries. There may be profound implications.