Discord App is a communication app and social platform that lets you communicate with your teammates while playing video games online. It is a free text, voice, and video communication platform designed by gamers for gamers. One of the notable things about Discord is that it provides high-quality and lag-free voice chat. This allows for the games to coordinate and communicate with everyone else around the world. Gamers love this app as the voice chat feature is reliable and free.
Discord App allows you to participate in themed servers, as long as you are given the invite link, which can be generated by anyone. The target audience for Discord is gamers but the free chat app can be enjoyed by other groups as well.
History of Discord App
Discord App was originally a voice-over-internet protocol but soon became one of the world’s largest chat platforms for gamers. Jason Citron is the founder of the app and has vast experience in the social network for gamers. Stanislav Vishnevsky, a game developer noticed that most gamers had problems with VoIP and this dilemma eventually led to the idea of developing the app at that time.
Discord App Features
The app utilizes a freemium business model where all the basic services are provided for free. If users want to use any additional premium features, there will be some additional charges. Some of the features from Discord you can enjoy for free are 100% communication, IP and DDoS Protection, convenience for PC, a friend list, minimal CPU usage, smart push notifications, permissions, direct messaging, modern text chat, and low latency.
Over the years, many other features have been added including the Discord StreamKit which was targeting streamers. There are tools and integrations you can add to the Discord server for streaming. The Discord Rich Presence which allows easier integration of games and Discord users was also introduced to make it easier for the players to join games with friends and even spectate during matches.
How Discord App Makes Money
Discord is strongly against using ads and selling users’ data. Therefore, they monetize using the;
1. Optional Cosmetic Items
There are some premium features on the app that will be charged on the Discord app including the skins, sticker packs, sound packs, and custom emojis. These are optional for the users but just to improve the user experience they encourage gamers to purchase these items.
2. Discord Merchandise Store
Discord offers different types of merchandise including branded t-shirts, sweatshirts, hoodies, and hats. The devoted fans always buy these and it is a source of revenue for the company. This is also a marketing strategy for the company and helps the company support its operating expenses.
3. Discord Nitro
There is a paid feature on the app called Discord Nitro. It is a subscription plan for users who want to enjoy some of the extra perks like having your Discord tag, animated avatars, custom emojis, special Nitro badge, boosted upload limit, and high-quality screen share. The subscription goes for $4.99/month or $49.99/year.
It is encouraged that loyal fans who wish to support the platform pay for extra perks and apart from that, you will be contributing to the development of the software.
4. Support from VCs
The gaming startup has attracted funding from Venture Capitalists which is used by Discord to grow internationally and improve Nitro. Some of the portions also go to rewarding the founding employees.
Conclusion
Discord is an app for gamers with all the functionalities in one single app. The app focuses more on game developers and this is the reason they are not so focused on how they make money.
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