Discord to Begin Showing Ads as it Hopes to Boost Revenue

Discord will soon begin showing ads on its platform in the coming week. The company is hoping to garner new streams of revenue, turning to the use of advertisements on the free platform.

Soon, Discord users will begin to see ads from game studios and developers, according to The Wall Street Journal. Discord will begin advertising promotions while enabling users to redeem gifts. The company will be leveraging its ‘Sponsored Quest’ system which sees users completing in-game tasks while friends watch on Discord. The company is said to be hiring over a dozen personnel to help with this initiative.

According to the report, Discord’s ads will be targeted to users based on their gameplay, age, and location. They will also appear on the bottom left corner of the screen, as noted by Discord senior vice president of product Peter Sellis. Those steaming must complete in-game objectives from the advertiser while at least one friend is watching to earn rewards. Those viewing can also complete their own Quests for rewards as well.

Discord first launched in 2015. The platform quickly became adopted by players as a means of chatting while playing games together. It also saw a notable boost in use during the pandemic and its popularity continued, reaching more than 200 million monthly active users as of March. Throughout the years, Discord has avoided the use of ads. Instead, it relied on its Nitro subscription service. Nitro offers additional upload bandwidth, custom emojis, and server boosts. In Canada, Nitro starts at $2.99/month while a $9.99/month subscription is available with more perks.

Discord has also been reported to have been seeking to be acquired in the past. In 2021, the platform was reported to be in discussions with Microsoft over a potential $10 billion deal. It was also believed that Amazon and Epic Games were also involved in discussions. Ultimately, Discord maintained its independence. It went on to raise $500 million USD (around $675 million CAD) at a $15 billion valuation.