Companies ride retail trading wave to Clubhouse
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Illustration: Eniola Odetunde/Axios
Major companies are using Clubhouse to hold court with ordinary investors.
Why it matters: Executives are using the invite-only audio app to allow the type of access that was historically only offered up to Wall Street on stodgy, suited-up quarterly earnings calls.
Driving the news: Auto parts seller Carparts.com hosted a Clubhouse chat Monday night with more than 2,000 participants — the first time it specifically targeted retail investors.
The big picture: Retail trading has been super-charged since the pandemic hit, so it's no coincidence that the company wants their attention.
- Retail traders account for nearly as much stock trading volume as mutual funds and hedge funds combined, the FT reports — a milestone helped by the Reddit-fueled trading frenzy earlier this year.
Between the lines: Companies are also trying to capitalize on the buzz of Clubhouse. Its main allure has been the ability to drop-in on conversations with influential people (including CEOs).
What's different now is using the platform for post-financial results conversations on a platform that's no doubt teeming with ordinary or would-be investors.
- "We never found the perfect forum," Carparts.com chief financial and chief operating officer David Meniane tells Axios, explaining why it hadn't done a specific event for retail investors before.
- "Clubhouse is a fast-growing channel and the stars really aligned."
Another example: Restaurant Brands International — which owns Burger King, Popeyes and Tim Hortons — put its CEO on Clubhouse last month, one day after it released financial results to Wall Street.
- The invite read: "Companies have calls with investors and business media every 3 months ... [w]hy not give our customers/guests the same access to our leaders," the invite read.
Worth noting: For years, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has famously taken questions from retail investors that submit queries via third-party platform Say.
What to watch: "There is no enterprise use case more ripe for disruption by Clubhouse than the earnings call. Cant wait till @elonmusk goes first on this," Aaron Levie, CEO of cloud company Box, tweeted last week.
The bottom line: This could be a major shakeup in how companies try to target average people — that is, if Clubhouse continues to take off.
