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Discord raises $150M, surpassing $2B valuation

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Re: Discord raises $150M, surpassing $2B valuation

#41
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Discord is as valuable to the gaming community as IRC was, or as Ventrilo was, or as Skype was (for a while). In other words, not very (as all those tools were easily replaced). Twitch built a marketplace of creators and consumers (like YouTube) -- that's why it's hard to replace. Discord, on the other hand, is a chat program.

I disagree (to a degree) . Everyone i know kicked and screamed about switching from Vent/Teamspeak/Mumble. I feel like it eventually dominated not because it was easy to dump existing solutions, but because existing solutions were poorly designed by comparison. No mobile, horrid chat, required install, poor voip quality. Discord came along with a better offering and it still was a tough switch. With that said, i agre…

> Discord "won" in my view because it simply had to be modern to be vastly superior.

Discord "won" because it's literally burning cash and offering a service for free (for example, I don't have to pay for a t2.micro instance to host a Mumble server). But this is obviously not sustainable.

If you're selling a dollar for fifty cents, it's not hard to find a market.

Re: Discord raises $150M, surpassing $2B valuation

#43
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Completely agree. Skype was the gamer go-to for a while, in fact.

as a gamer I have to ask "when was that?"

At the end of MoP and during WoD, everyone was all of a sudden using Skype for everything in WoW (raiding, PvP, dungeons, etc.). I remember it vividly because it was so annoying.

Re: Discord raises $150M, surpassing $2B valuation

#44
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Completely agree. Skype was the gamer go-to for a while, in fact.

as a gamer I have to ask "when was that?"

As a gamer, I'd have to agree with him - we used Skype up until the Xbox Live (360) era.

Different portions of gamers exist, and all that.

Re: Discord raises $150M, surpassing $2B valuation

#45
post #23
post #16

I'm bearish on Discord. Unlike Slack, it targets a price-averse demographic and is attempting to enter spaces that are very saturated (Steam, Origin, Epic, Ubisoft are already crushing the digital distribution medium), so then it's basically an IRC replacement for gamers. I understand Slack's valuation as it targets huge companies with up to decades-long contracts and has projected revenues > $1B for this year, but I…

I think Discord is a clear buy for someone like Microsoft. It gives them a big leg up, and doesn't really compete with Skype in the demographics.

Microsoft would rebrand it Skype for Gamers

Re: Discord raises $150M, surpassing $2B valuation

#47
post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not so sure gamers are a price-averse demographic

They are, that's why Fortnite took a massive dump on PUBG

PUBG is still massively popular with the demographic it is made for. Fortnite is popular because it pulled in a new demographic of young kids, new gamers, and was easy to get into. Just because Fortnight is more popular overall doesn't make PUBG a failure or that it "lost".

Re: Discord raises $150M, surpassing $2B valuation

#49
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree (to a degree) . Everyone i know kicked and screamed about switching from Vent/Teamspeak/Mumble. I feel like it eventually dominated not because it was easy to dump existing solutions, but because existing solutions were poorly designed by comparison. No mobile, horrid chat, required install, poor voip quality. Discord came along with a better offering and it still was a tough switch. With that said, i agre…

> Discord "won" in my view because it simply had to be modern to be vastly superior. Discord "won" because it's literally burning cash and offering a service for free (for example, I don't have to pay for a t2.micro instance to host a Mumble server). But this is obviously not sustainable. If you're selling a dollar for fifty cents, it's not hard to find a market.

Relaying some text is cheap. If I had to pay 3x the actual server cost to run one (so the rest can go toward development and staff), it would still be minuscule.

My friend circles on discord have enough people with nitro that it's almost certainly cash-positive by a lot.

Re: Discord raises $150M, surpassing $2B valuation

#50
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think Discord is a clear buy for someone like Microsoft. It gives them a big leg up, and doesn't really compete with Skype in the demographics.

Microsoft would rebrand it Skype for Gamers

Then they'll rebrand Lync^H^H^H^H Skype for Business to "Discord for Business"
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