Key Takeaways
- Discord is implementing advertisements on its platform after years of remaining ad-free, potentially risking user satisfaction.
- Users may be able to turn off ads in their settings, but it is unclear if this feature will be available for all or require a paid perk.
- Community reaction to the ads will depend on their intrusiveness and relatability, with potential consequences for Discord’s user base.
It’s no secret that Discord has been trying to find dependable sources of revenue over the last few years. It began with Discord’s subscription-based Turbo model which unlocked special features on the platform, such as using server emotes across all of your channels. It then expanded to allow users to gift Turbo subscriptions, financially boost servers, purchase cosmetics for their profile picture, a brief dabble into NFTs, and even purchase games. However, it seems that all of Discord’s efforts haven’t paid off, as the company is now bowing to the financial pressure to run advertisements on its platform.
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Discord is getting advertisements very soon
As reported by the Wall Street Journal, Discord users will begin to see adverts appear on the platform “in the coming week.” This is after years of going ad-free, with a user base that has become accustomed to not seeing ads on the platform. Discord will keep the adverts relevant to its gaming-centric users, and will offer rewards if they stream specific games to their friends and complete “in-game tasks.”
Wall Street Journal cites “people familiar with [Discord’s] plans” in its report, claiming that the company is currently hiring “over a dozen people” for the sales of implementing advertisements into the app. Discord has confirmed that users can turn off advertisements within the settings, but it’s unclear if this setting will be available for everyone to access, or if it will be locked behind a paid perk such as Discord Nitro.
Can Discord keep its user base happy?
With Discord being free of ads for so long, adding them will surely cause ripples within the community. Discord’s users already took a stand when the company floated the idea of NFTs within the platform, and while they couldn’t stop the social media company from implementing a unique username system, they definitely made their criticisms heard. As such, the community’s reception of these ads will depend on how invasive they are, how relatable they are, and how easy it will be to turn them off. If Discord fails to satisfy its user base on any of these points, it runs the risk of damaging user confidence in the platform, or even sending people back to pre-Discord apps such as TeamSpeak.