How Discord Makes Money

Discord makes money through various avenues although its primary source of revenue comes from merchandise such as T-shirts and hoodies and users purchasing the subscription service Discord Nitro. In recent times Discord’s business model has shifted to a semi-freemium where users pay money for bonus features.

Discord Nitro is a subscription-based service that enhances Discord voice, video, and chat. It allows users to set up a personal profile with an animated tag, make animated emotes, and upload large files (up to 100MB). It also enables HD video, screen share, and Go-live streaming.

Discord Net Worth

As of March 2021, Discord is valued at an estimated $7 billion, doubling its value in about a year. The company’s value can be attributed to its 200 million users and an increased effort to monetize via the subscription service Discord Nitro. To date, Discord has received $600 million in Venture Capital funding. According to the press release, the latest round of funding in June 2020 raised $100 million.

Discord Business Model

Unlike most other players in the socializing space for gamers, Discord is heavily against the use of advertisements. This focus on user experience is perhaps the greatest contributor to the success of the platform. While Discord was introduced at no cost the major monetization method has been a push in paid customization.

With the events of the 2020s global pandemic and an enormous trend towards remote working Discord is also in a prime position to expand far beyond gaming moving forward. With more workplaces and even teachers using discord more now than ever before Discord is in a prime position to start expanding and promoting the platform that has utility far beyond its humble origins. The platform has now built a strong base and we will likely see more monetization methods introduced in the coming months and beyond.

Is Discord Free?

Discord is predominantly free. Users can set up their Discord server with channels and roles, or join existing communities at no cost. There are paid add ons available to improve certain features and functions but they are by no means essential.

Can You Make Money On Discord?

While you can’t monetize Discord directly, there are many ways you can make money while using the platform. Here are just a few:

Many Twitch streamers add “Sub Discord Channels” in their servers as an added incentive to subscribe to their Twitch channel.
Content creators utilize Discord as a perk for those who donate to them through Patreon.
As you build a community, you can monetize or promote outside services or set up affiliate links in your channels to earn income.

What Is Discord?

Discord is a Voice and instant message platform which is designed specifically for communities. It allows users to communicate via voice with a channel-based system known as a “discord server” that is ideal for hosting multiple users in a single conversation. Discord also allows for voice calls, video calls, screen share streaming, text messages, media files, allows youtube

While Discord rose to popularity throughout the gaming community essentially replacing Teamspeak. While Discord made no specific plans to target the gaming community a lot of the platform’s initial success can be attributed to subreddit communities that replaced their website URLs for guides, clans, and various other gaming groups with a link to their Discord server. Twitch Streamers also attributed to the success of Discord as the platform was ideal for building and interacting with a community.

Sources

“Why Discord is Different” – Discord
“Discord Communities” – Wikipedia.org
“Discord Was Once The Alt-Right’s Favorite Chat App. Now It’s Gone Mainstream And Scored A New $3.5 Billion Valuation” – Forbes
“Discord IPO” – Sharespost
Teaching on Discord – Medium