But the company is considering launching in-app purchases to enhance the new video features and earn some extra cash. “Discord has made the promise to our user base of keeping the core Discord experience free,” says Resmini. The startup earns money from $5/month subscriptions to its Nitro tier, which gives users cosmetic upgrades and a few bells and whistles. The 70-employee startup now handles 200 million messages per day and up to 4 million concurrent users as groups chat about World of Warcraft, OverWatch, League of Legends and Clash Royale. It’s now raised a total of $79 million, including the $50 million round led by Index Ventures in January 2017. “Can we make a 10X project? Low-friction usage, no renting servers, beautiful design we took from mobile.”ĭiscord launched in May 2016 and has been a rocket ship ever since. Those required IP addresses that could be attacked by trolls, rented servers and clumsy apps. “I played MMORPG 15 hours per day,” he told me, and was dissatisfied with TeamSpeak and Mumble. So in late 2014, it started tinkering with other ideas.ĬTO Stan Vishnevskiy had been dreaming of a tool like Discord. “We couldn’t figure out how to get over the hump on the monetization side,” Resmini says. Video chat could be a stepping stone for Discord to start competing with massive one-to-many broadcasting channels like YouTube and Twitch.ĭiscord was originally a game developer itself, making the critically acclaimed but publicly ignored mobile battle arena Fates Forever. One big thing that’s lacking is sound from screenshares, which Discord will need to figure out. If the video launch goes smoothly, Discord could snatch gamers from its competitors that either lack video entirely, or do screensharing poorly like Skype, as they weren’t built for conveying rapid-fire action with sharp graphics. If you find the feature is missing all of a sudden, we suggest you lay on the floor and stare at the ceiling until it’s fixed.” Embodying Discord’s playful style, the company explains that “It’s possible that we’ll need to completely turn off video calls during this test. That’s why only 5 percent of users will get video today, and it will only work with groups of up to 10 people. My briefing with the company was held over its new video chat, and it looked much better than what’s standard. “A lot of infrastructure had to be built up for this launch,” he warns, though, since the video features run at a remarkably smooth and crisp 720p at 30 frames per second. “This is the most requested feature on Discord probably a year running,” says CMO Eros Resmini. These features could further addict Discord’s 45 million users, 9 million of whom use its web, desktop and mobile apps each day. Now friends can watch each other play their favorite games while talking face-to-face. Today Discord expands beyond text and voice with the launch of video chat and screensharing. After out-gunning its gaming-specific competitors like TeamSpeak, Mumble and Ventrilo with a secret $50 million fundraise earlier this year, Discord is setting its sights on Skype. It wants to be the home for gamer clans strategizing and trash-talking with each other. Discord wants to destroy its biggest, best-funded competitor in the battle to be the communications layer for gaming.
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