The team behind the high-profile livestreaming platform Kick is expanding its footprint. Founders Bijan Tehrani and Ed Craven—the duo also behind crypto gambling site Stake.com—are officially launching a new mobile app called Club out of beta for iOS and Android.
Positioned as an alternative to existing creator monetization tools, Club enters a competitive space dominated by heavyweights like Patreon, Substack, and OnlyFans.
What Club Offers Creators
Led by 30-year-old CEO Henrik Pohlmann, Club aims to cut through the noise of algorithm-driven feeds heavily saturated with bots and AI-generated content.
- Direct Monetization: Creators can earn money directly through fan payments and subscriptions.
- Ad-Free Experience: The platform plans to remain entirely ad-free, generating revenue by taking a 20% cut of creator earnings—matching OnlyFans' revenue share, though higher than Substack and Patreon's standard 10% platform fees.
- Community Features: Unlike standard text or video feeds, Club incorporates fan profiles, participation badges, and dedicated spaces for direct interaction.
During its beta phase, the platform quietly onboarded roughly 3,000 creators, largely drawing early adopters from the Kick livestreaming ecosystem.
The Broader Strategy and Industry Skepticism
While Club shares leadership ties with Kick—known for its lighter content moderation and massive creator payouts—Pohlmann stresses that Club operates independently. It features its own distinct mission, separate content moderation policies, and a strict ban on explicit sexual content.
Despite these safeguards, industry analysts remain cautious about the app’s long-term viability in an already crowded market.
"Creators are multiplatform now, so there's less incentive for fans to follow them from one platform to Club unless it can offer a better experience," noted Ben Woods, head of the creator economy at Enders Analysis. Social media analyst Matt Navarra also pointed out that mainstream creators will scrutinize the platform's foundational philosophy and association with Kick's controversial roots.
As Club officially opens to the public, its primary challenge will be proving it offers distinct value that draws audiences away from entrenched giants like YouTube, Twitch, and Patreon.
