Discord Wants to Become the Top Social Media Service
Social Media has been a mess lately. The major companies are dealing with people leaving as the platforms are being used to fuel political talk more then they are for connecting with friends like they once were. With censorship and ads filling timelines users are starting to look at moving to smaller more personal places to talk with their close friends. Discord has noticed this and is hoping to make a move to capture this audience.
Microsoft tried to get on the hype and strike a deal to take over Discord. Discord CEO Jason Citron rejected that deal for $12 million. He believes Discord has a bright future. Which is great for us gamers who use it daily! But as people look to move to more private chat software Discord hopes to expand it’s audience beyond just gamers and reach out to a new crowd.
“There’s this big trend [of people shifting away from] broadcast wide-open social media communication services to more small, intimate places… We’re a meaningful part of how that’s evolving on the internet,”
interview with the Financial Times & Jason Citron
Discord has grown to more then just gamers who need a place to communicate in video games. Throughout the pandemic new gamers like D&D and MTG players have accepted discord as a good alternative to in person meetups. These people then invite their friends and the trend has continued to grow this way. A platform that was mostly gamers has expanded to include their friends and friends of friends.
Discord hopes to more than double the companies value to $15 billion in it’s next funding round. Discord say’s they’ve been talking to console manufactures in hopes of making this something we can find across all types of gaming devices. Sony also struck a deal with them recently so we can definitely expect to see Discord on PlayStation devices in the future.
Personally I think this would be great to see and will keep Discord popular. The fact that the CEO see’s so much value and doesn’t want to sell it for a huge profit means he really cares about his product and plans to stick with it for awhile. With more and more users coming the platform will need to stay current and this puts pressure on the developers to make things work well. Discord has around 150 million active monthly users and that number is only expected to grow.
As someone who uses Discord more than any other social platform I have definitely noticed this. I’m in groups for gamers, local activities, working out, etc.. Discord definitely has become a landing place for all types of people to come together and talk. I find most the communities to be really awesome and friendly, and if you haven’t checked it out I definitely would suggest it!
