Audio app Clubhouse floats payments feature for creators

(Reuters) - Audio-chat app Clubhouse said on Monday it will launch a monetization feature for its creators on the platform and that it will not receive any payment from it.

Starting Monday, all users will be able to send payments through the platform, Clubhouse said. The feature to receive payments will initially be available only to a small test group, and later rolled out to other customers.

Users can send payment to Clubhouse creators who have the feature enabled, by tapping a 'Send Money' option. The audio-based social network company said a small card processing fee will be charged by its payment processing partner, Stripe.

The San Francisco-based company, whose app lets people gather in audio chatrooms to discuss different topics, requires newcomers to be invited by existing users before they can join.

The app saw its global user numbers soar after Tesla Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk and Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev held a surprise discussion on the platform.

In the year since it started, Clubhouse has faced criticism over reports of misogyny, anti-Semitism and COVID-19 misinformation on the platform despite rules against racism, hate speech, abuse and false information.

(Reporting by Maria Ponnezhath in Bengaluru, Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)