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Discord raises $150M, surpassing $2B valuation

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

#71

Post by [deleted] »

hbosch wrote: post #26
dvt wrote: 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…

Have you tried having group voice chats over IRC? This is where discord shines.

[deleted]

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

#72

Post by trophycase »

cflewis wrote: post #23
dvt wrote: 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.

Please god don't say that. M$'s acquisition of Skype is a lot of the reason we use Discord now.

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

#73

Post by nightski »

dvt wrote: post #69
shanghaiaway wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd be more bearish on the stores of Origin, Epic, Ubisoft. Building a user base has to be done bottom up. Companies in general cannot do that because their approach is a forced top down one, pushed by marketing and sales. I think it's fair to believe that Discord can be one of two stores together with Steam. Other publishers are likely to fail.

> Building a user base has to be done bottom up. Stores have nothing to do with "user bases." You just want people to buy stuff. As a publisher, you have all the leverage when it comes to pricing arbitrage. You can sell game X on your platform for $45 and sell the same license to Discord for $50. The consumer doesn't care where they buy it from, as long as it's cheaper. Obviously, they're incentivized to buy it on yo…

Sort of. I agree with you that Origin, UPlay and the like have a huge advantage because they actually publish games.

But popular storefronts like Steam do have a clause that if you sell it on Steam you can't sell it for cheaper elsewhere.

Obviously a new storefront like Discord may not have that kind of power. But who knows.

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

#75

Post by aquova »

I'm curious to see how Discord fairs in the long run. I've been a daily user of Discord for nearly 2 years now, and I think their core text-and-voice service is the best on the market (for now). However, whenever I hear about Discord's financials, it is always with regards to additional secured funding, and very little discussed about their userbase revenue. I see a notable number of "regular" users with Nitro, but very few so far seem interested in their game market. I'd be interested in seeing how well their cash input is fairing, especially with regards to Nitro. A few days ago, they gave away a large number of free Nitro benefits for a month, so I imagine that many users who had never tried it before (like myself) are being additionally tempted. We'll see if it pays off.

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

#76

Post by drchickensalad »

lostmsu wrote: post #68
freehunter wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I played CS:Source in a clan, we had Teamspeak that we rented a server for. When I played WoW and Guild Wars with a small group of friends, we used Skype because it was free. Early-to-mid 2000s.

I must be a mammoth, as I still use Skype for gaming. What does Discord offer, that Skype doesn't, and Steam is running anyway too? Lately Skype became too buggy to use as IM, but sound is still solid.

To reverse it, I can't really think of anything skype does better than discord in a mildly gaming context honestly.

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

#77

Post by btown »

Dylan16807 wrote: post #49
dvt wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Yep; it’s important to note that the signaling required to coordinate P2P voice and video is no more expensive than “relaying some text” with modern protocols. The question is whether Discord can remain sufficiently innovative to be ahead of the next thing that tries to disrupt its model. I think it is sufficiently irreverent, and sufficiently independent from B2B stability needs, to be that innovative.

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

#78

Post by SL61 »

dvt wrote: 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'm gonna have to disagree with you there. Gamers today are not price-averse like they might have been when the gaming demographic was mostly teens.

After a peek at your website, I see I'm quite a bit younger than you. I know a lot of people who do not have much money, but they still consider it worth it to spend a chunk of their limited income on Discord Nitro. In some servers I've even seen young teens (13-14) spending their allowance money on it. It would be interesting, based on your anecdote, if most Nitro subscribers are young users. It might be due to the custom emotes, which are probably more desirable to younger users than older ones.

On top of that, Discord has become the main social media platform for some people. I can't imagine using it that way myself, but I know a lot of people who are in a massive number of servers and spend much of their day on it. It's not just gaming voice chat for them, it's an entire social network. These people, who also tend to be quite young, almost always have Nitro, because it's worth paying $5-10/month for their main online platform.

Maybe the main area of concern for Discord should be whether these young users keep their subscriptions as they age.

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

#79

Post by orliesaurus »

Pfhreak wrote: post #29
dvt wrote: 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. It's more connected to communities than IRC/Vent/Skype. Right now I hang out in multiple alpha dev game discords, speedrunning discords, a personal game friends discord, a queer gaming discord, and a tabletop game development discord. The degree to which I'm connected to communities is much stronger than in something like IRC or Vent.

I had 30+ TeamSpeak servers in my browse list, I would easily be in 2 or 3 at each one time, but voice would only work in one at a time!

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

#80

Post by joering2 »

trophycase wrote: post #72
cflewis wrote: 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.

Please god don't say that. M$'s acquisition of Skype is a lot of the reason we use Discord now.

After over six months of being harrased with “upgrade your skype for better experience”, I finally buckled up and clicked “ok”. When Skype came back in less than five minutes I felt that Microsoft read my mind, pickup all the features I loved and used daily, and deleted them off their new version! it simply blew my mind! In addition everything worked different! New Skype is entirely new messanger, not Skype upgrade. Thank God I was able to find previous version and still install it although I am sure eventually they will cut off old versions.
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