LinkedIn wants to be the suit-and-tie Clubhouse

The Future. LinkedIn is set to beta test a social audio feature that is positioning itself as the hub for virtual business development. While the platform’s large user base and niche usage may carve out a place for the feature’s success, LinkedIn could become a major disruptor by wooing business with paid-ticketing options and third-party app support to host major conferences for a truly global audience.

Talk shop
LinkedIn wants to be the conference center of the internet.

• The platform is rolling out a social-audio feature that will be focused on letting users host interactive, live virtual events.
• The feature — which is launching later this month in beta — will run natively on LinkedIn, and hosts will be able to record and moderate conversations.
• Additionally, both hosts and attendees can talk one-on-one with others during the event.
• Eventually, the feature will allow hosts to ticket events, but for now, it will be rolling out as a free product.

This spring, LinkedIn plans on debuting a video version of the feature as well.

Conference call
LinkedIn is jumping into a pool of competition, with companies like Clubhouse and Twitter that have already gotten a head start during the pandemic. But to its advantage, LinkedIn has over 800 million users and has been working overtime to build up its own creator program — it launched a $25 million creator fund last fall.

The goal is to get the feature up and running by tapping this creator roster, which currently consists of around 1.5 million LinkedInfluencers (our name for them, not theirs). While competition is stiff, LinkedIn’s identity as a place for business development may be a strong enough niche to attract a sizable audience.