Clubhouse has announced that it will be undergoing a rebranding due to brand confusion with the other Clubhouse. The company that operates its website on the Clubhouse.io domain name announced that it will be rebranding as Shortcut. The company appears to have been able to acquire Shortcut.com in advance of the rebranding news (Whois is private, so I can not independently confirm).
Clubhouse announced the news today on Twitter:
Read all about the new name change: https://t.co/PRLnvbkWFK
— Clubhouse (soon to be Shortcut) (@clubhouseio) July 29, 2021
I think it is pretty obvious why Clubhouse.io is changing its name to Shortcut. Another company called Clubhouse has quickly become the more well-known Clubhouse, as the company explained in today’s blog post announcing the forthcoming change:
“For many of you, the reason for this is probably pretty obvious. The Clubhouse Audio App became so big so fast that we couldn’t possibly hope to forever maintain our own brand standing in the face of their popularity.”
The chat app, which gained serious traction in early 2021, acquired its brand match Clubhouse.com domain name in the Spring for an undisclosed amount of money. Clubhouse.io was almost forced to rebrand with no chance of getting the .com and a big challenge of competing for brand recognition.
Clubhouse.io did well with its rebranding decision, particularly because it seems to have acquired the brand match .com domain name from the start. At the time of publication, Shortcut.com forwards to Clubhouse.io, but I presume that will change at some point in the very near future.
I reached out to the former owner of Shortcut.com to ask if he could share the sale price, and he declined to do so. When I inquired about the domain name 10+ years ago, it was the same registrant and I was told the domain name was not for sale.
Clubhouse.io was put in a tough spot when the other Clubhouse became the Clubhouse brand. I think this rebrand and acquisition was well done.
