Run on May 13, 2015, Discord has become the social platform favored by players around the world, to the point that interested Microsoft for a while. With his simple and accessible interface, and his “servers” allow him to achieve or create the communities that he probably gradually replaced the old forums.
With more than 600 million users worldwide, Discord has managed to be essential in ten years, and today seeks to “connect” everyone.
On the occasion of this anniversary, Tech & Co was able to discuss with Stanislav Vishnevskiy, co -founder of Discord, and chief of technology within the company valued at more than $ 15 billion.
An “essential component” of video games
It should be said that most of the first users of the platform are players, and the most popular servers are those that belong to known video game licenses, such as Minecraft, Genshin Impact either Fortnite: “Today, more than 200 million users spend more than 2 billion hours every month playing on our platform.”
Stanislav Vishnevskiy insists that in ten years, Discord has become “an essential component” of video games: “We have become the link between developers, players, editors and brands.
It is the proof of integrations within console ecosystems, such as Xbox or PlayStation, allowing him to chat with his friends without having to have a smartphone or a computer: “Discord has begun as a product that we have developed for ourselves, to communicate during our games,” he said. The rest was a phenomenal success, pushing console manufacturers to adopt the same trend.
“Players have extremely high expectations, and we work hard to satisfy them,” adds Stanislav Vishnevskiy.
Return to the foundations for discord
The fact is that discord remains above all a social network for players. However, while the Cavid-19 pandemic was in all minds, the platform tried to get desirable for a more diverse audience. If the concept took at first, it was partly reserved to return to video games: “Instead of trying to become a generalist discussion platform, we returned to our main strength: deepen friendships around games and interests close to games.”
The fact is that Discord has managed to develop its activities far beyond its social network state alone. Therefore, a development kit has been made available to developers so that they can create “experiences” easily, such as being able to interact with other people while playing or recovering usable bonds at play or on the platform thanks to “missions.” You can also cite periodic discussions with studies to always improve available functions, such as voice.
Like the forums, Discord also adopted a driven interaction system, with emojis, sounds and stickers. You can customize your server as we consider appropriate. But replacing traditional forums, however, it was not the main ambition of the company: “Discord tools facilitate the creation of communities, and many have chosen to use it instead of forums. That said discord is fundamentally different: integrates voice, video and text in a fluid way into all devices and games of games.”
For Stanislav Vishnevskiy, Discord has the main advantage of putting customization in the heart of his model, promoting more free conversions: “Players arrive at Discord to find a” digital home “, they pass from passive consumption of social networks to an active connection in small spaces where their friendships flourish.”
An effective and intransigent economic model
But if creating, joining a server or discussing is free, Discord is based on microtransactions and a monthly subscription model to benefit from an “greater” experience. With Discord Nitro, you can increase the weight limit of the files to send, share your video and better quality session, use emojis on all servers or even customize your profile with animated effects. It is also possible to “increase” a server to benefit from improvements.
“Without going into financial details, our Nitro subscription is working significantly,” specifies that Stanislav Vishnevskiy to Tech & Co, “the characteristics of missions and stores, such as Avatar decorations, profile effects and badges, are natural extensions.”
For the company, the stages carried out in the past have allowed us to integrate a “free to play” model, where the global and free experience, and for those who want more secondary options, there is a paid, but not mandatory part: “We are very attentive to the way users want to express themselves, then we create characteristics that allow them to express themselves in a way that are ready to pay.”
But if everything seems to go well, in the dawn of his ten years, Discord said goodbye to the other founder of the company, Jason Lemon, replaced by an old Blizzard of Activision, Humam Sakhnini. When asked about this arrival, Stanislav Vishnevskiy praises the “exceptional” experience of this former man from the right of Bobby Kotick (former chief of activation), who was in charge of the mobile giant, the king.
“Humam considers that discord is a turning point, with a solid base on which to build. While remains in the heart of the game industry, he believes in our growth potential and in our innovative role. This corresponds perfectly to our goal of becoming the social layer of games, connecting players, developers and ecosystems in the broad sense,” he adds.
Discord and minor users
When questioning Stanislav Vishnevskiy about his vision of discord “in ten years”, he does not get wet: “Technology evolves too fast so that we can predict the future with certainty.”
However, he explains that the work done today, with players or developers, must allow a “less fragmented” video game.
Obstacles are still present for Discord, which is under legal actions in the United States for “deceptive commercial practices” towards minors. Stanislav Vishnevskiy does not want to “comment on progress”, but insists that discord remains “deeply compromised” in favor of the safety of its users, claiming to take “firm measures” when the platform indicates a violation of its policies: “Security is an essential component of a platform that ‘works’, users cannot create authentic links if they do not feel safe.
Source: BFM TV
