

Discord stock upgrade#
Paying subscribers enjoy exclusive perks like access to animated and custom emojis, as well as opportunities to upgrade their server functionality.

The platform does not have ads and makes money through its Nitro subscription plan, which it offers for $9.99 a month (or $99.99 a year). The company has not released new figures that would reflect any growth since. The road to a potential public offeringĭiscord brought in $130 million in revenue in 2020, nearly triple what it made the previous year, although it was still not profitable at the time. It also makes it easier for new members to discover the community. It also unveiled the “community server” designation, which gives administrators the ability to track server activity and set up a server welcome screen. It introduced noise suppression mode so users could work around the pesky background noise created by their cohabitants. To accommodate the new use-cases brought about by pandemic realities, Discord added some new features to the platform. The aim was to appeal to a broader audience and make the platform feel more welcoming to those outside the joystick-wielding crowd. It changed its slogan from “Chat for gamers” to “Your place to talk” and promised to use less gamer in-jokes in its communications. Discord servers began to function as remote classrooms, workplaces, and gathering spots for various groups.Īs its non-gamer user count reached a critical mass, the company decided to rebrand. New groups were already finding their way to Discord, but the pandemic turbocharged the diversification of Discord’s user base. The app became popular with internet dwellers from all walks of life, blockchain bros – it’s nearly impossible now to be involved with crypto without using Discord – and anime aficionados alike. Soon enough, gamers were not the only contingent on the platform. Users congregated on private and public Discord servers (similar to subreddits or Slack workspaces), with each server functioning as a community built around a shared interest. The initial features allowed for text and voice communication, but soon expanded to include video calling and screen sharing. To fix the problem, they built Discord out of the chat feature in the multiplayer game Hammer & Chisel, which was created by Citron’s game development studio.ĭiscord’s low-latency chats and user-friendly interface quickly attracted legions of dragon slayers and minecrafters. The primary irritation was the high lag time in most voice chats, which made it difficult to keep up with the fast pace of events in the in-game world. Both had worked in the gaming industry and were aware of gamers’ frustration at the shortcomings of existing chat apps. Discord as a gamer stomping groundĭiscord was launched in 2015 by two video game enthusiasts Jason Citron and Stan Vishnevskiy, as a tool for coordinating strategy in multi-player games. Executives at the company are reportedly counting on Discord’s brand recognition and strong funding to float its stock on a public exchange – not bad for a company that once aspired to do nothing more than help gamers talk while playing. This would enable it to lower its cost of capital by bypassing many of the intermediaries that are usually involved in an IPO.

Its valuation was then estimated at $15 billion, more than double what it was a year prior.ĭiscord is currently considering the possibility of a direct listing in lieu of the traditional IPO route, sources told Bloomberg. Discord brought in more than $500 million through its latest funding round led by Dragoneer Investment Group, which took place last September. These moves come as the company has been steadily growing and has rebuffed takeover bids from major tech companies. The company is in talks with investment bankers about going public within the year, according to Bloomberg. And the latter bunch might soon have one more ticker symbol to discuss. The platform connects over 150 million monthly active users with diverse interests from League of Legends to stock trading. While it’s still the messaging app of choice for a sizable chunk of the gaming community, its user base has expanded far beyond it.
