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Discord ends deal talks with Microsoft

wsj.com

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Re: Discord ends deal talks with Microsoft

#21

Post by dragontamer »

ganzuul wrote: post #16
COGlory wrote: post #2

What about Discord besides network effect makes it a desirable holding? Do they have any technological advantage?

Makes the users feel like the devs care.

> Makes the users feel like the devs care.

Isn't that true of virtually all internet companies BEFORE their IPO?

After the IPO, the new owners (aka: the stock market investors) demand profits. And those profit demands result in the slowly, but surely, fleecing of customers.

Be it Geocities, Tumblr, Slack, or whatever really. If you start with a "growth-oriented" service with a free product for clicks/subscribers, the community always grows disappointed when the money starts to flow. (Geocities / Tumblr were acquired, but same idea really. The new owners demanded $$$$ be made and the community suffered)

--------

In contrast, companies that seem to charge early (ie: Amazon: AWS or the storefront) seem to be more sustainable. Customers get used to paying for the service, and don't mind paying a fair price to stay a customer.

Alternatively: being a digital nomad: moving from service to service during their "free periods" seems moderately sustainable. It seems like new companies can offer free services... until they can't. At which point, you pick up your community and move to the next free service. Especially for communities built up around entertainment (video games), having a digital nomad lifestyle is fine since the community actually has tons of freetime.

Re: Discord ends deal talks with Microsoft

#22

Post by toastercat »

COGlory wrote: post #2

What about Discord besides network effect makes it a desirable holding? Do they have any technological advantage?

The UX and featureset of Discord is impressive. The UX in particular is superior to Slack, Teams, or any other modern chat application I've used.

I'd like to move my group to Matrix, but Element (fka Riot.im) is nowhere near as polished or user-friendly as Discord.

Re: Discord ends deal talks with Microsoft

#23

Post by doublerabbit »

curiousgal wrote: post #9
donkarma wrote: post #3

Considering the state of Teams they really needed Discord for their amazing technology of actually being semi responsive

Been using Teams for school for two years now and have zero complaints.

Been using Teams for work for two years and I have so many complaints.

Re: Discord ends deal talks with Microsoft

#24

Post by Epenthesis »

rvz wrote: post #4

Let's hope that Discord doesn't end up going the way of Slack. Since Slack got overconfident over Microsoft Teams and lost and got acquired by Salesforce.

As someone who's never used Discord, what's it do better than Slack? Superficially other than aesthetics/integrations, they seem basically identical

Re: Discord ends deal talks with Microsoft

#25

Post by ArkanExplorer »

COGlory wrote: post #2

What about Discord besides network effect makes it a desirable holding? Do they have any technological advantage?

Its B2C software so its fundamentally designed for consumers - individual users and community creators.

Slack, Teams etc. are B2B so end-users are forced to adopt it.

The UX of both reflects this.

Re: Discord ends deal talks with Microsoft

#26

Post by Varriount »

COGlory wrote: post #2

What about Discord besides network effect makes it a desirable holding? Do they have any technological advantage?

I don't know if you consider this a technological advantage, but compared to Slack, Discord puts a relatively heavy emphasis on its live voice channel functionality. You can join and leave them at a whim, mute and control the volume of individual users, etc.

I personally also appreciate the fact that channels and servers can be grouped, and that the markup syntax supported in text chat is more compliant with markdown expectations than the markup supported by Slack.

Re: Discord ends deal talks with Microsoft

#27

Post by wayoutthere »

COGlory wrote: post #2

What about Discord besides network effect makes it a desirable holding? Do they have any technological advantage?

Brand; the days of “technological advantage” as a differentiator are over. Technology progress has plateaued in a great many industries over the last decade so it’s all about the product experience these days.

Honestly tho, Google could instantly leapfrog its competitors in the space by acquiring Discord. The Google ecosystem is desperately in need of a decent collaboration tool and everything Google tried to build in that space is shit.

Re: Discord ends deal talks with Microsoft

#29

Post by spullara »

Epenthesis wrote: post #24
rvz wrote: post #4

Let's hope that Discord doesn't end up going the way of Slack. Since Slack got overconfident over Microsoft Teams and lost and got acquired by Salesforce.

As someone who's never used Discord, what's it do better than Slack? Superficially other than aesthetics/integrations, they seem basically identical

Always on audio / video rooms. Like slack + clubhouse + zoom.

Re: Discord ends deal talks with Microsoft

#30

Post by Analemma_ »

xevrem wrote: post #12

so.... Discord will be a hellscape in 3-5 years as its inevitably destroyed by corporate greed?

Corporate greed is for sure a problem, but... does Discord even make money? I'm guessing their S-1 will reveal that they are ludicrously unprofitable, and they will actually have to fix that if they go public, corporate greed or no.

In general, I try not to fall in love with free products that seem too good to be true, because the party has to come to an end at some point.

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