How Does Discord Make Money?

Do you know how does Discord make money?

With over 14 million daily players, Discord is one of the most popular gaming applications. Moreover,  what’s better than chatting with your playmates without any disruptions? That’s what Discord does the best. It lets players have efficient communication and also takes care of their security.

However, the problem that occurs with many gaming applications is poor quality and slow speed. Furthermore, almost all these applications earn from advertisements. Having constant ads while chatting or playing could be really irritating. Nonetheless, Discord doesn’t display any ads. Moreover, it’s absolutely free and secure.  

You must be wondering how Discord earns its profit in that case? Are you a gamer and curious to know how does Discord make money? If yes, this article is a perfect read for you.

In this article, you will get all your answers related to Discord, it’s money-making criteria, business model, and so on.

So, let’s start!

What Is Discord?

Discord is much more than an online gaming program. Although it allows gamers to voice chat freely while playing, it’s not limited to that. It helps players interact not only while playing but also to create a community and chat whenever they feel. You can have a hassle-free communication with your gaming community even when you are not playing. In short, Discord is a freeware all-in-one software that allows gamers across the globe to text, voice, and video chat. 

Interesting Features of Discord:

● Discord lets you connect with your friends or people having common interests via free voice or video chat. On top of that, it’s absolutely free.  You can add as many friends to your friend’s list as you want.

● It is both a mobile and desktop version. In other words, you can use it both on your mobiles and desktops.

● What else? Just like any other messaging app, you get the option of customizing your chat notifications.

● You don’t need any eligibility to create an account on Discord. In other words, anyone can use Discord.

● It’s extremely safe and secure. You don’t even need to disclose your identity to others as there is an option to keep yourself anonymous.

● Furthermore, you can enhance the functionality of your discord server by adding bots.

How Does Discord Work?

You can easily understand how does Discord work if you are somewhat familiar with Reddit. Just like Reddit, Discord has many different groups. Although the target market of Discord is gamers, the forum has different interest groups, including music, art, movies, and so on.

Moreover, with Discord, you can create themed servers if you are signed in on the application. Furthermore, you can share the participation link or send an invite to others. As a result, they will be able to join the same server. There is also an option of hosting text and voice channels by the server admins. The group members can have a discussion on different topics in these channels.

One problem with online communities is the issue of spamming. Nonetheless, Discord has the option of blocking a member if he or she spams the group.

How to Start Using Discord

●The first step is to sign up on Discord or create an account. You can either create an account on its mobile app or desktop version. Just fill in a few details, including your email address, username, password, and date of birth, to register on Discord.

●After signing up, you can join discord servers or chat rooms through invitation or joining links.

●Furthermore, you can also create your own server. In other words, you can also host a server.

Now, let’s see how does Discord make money, the one question that is in everyone’s mind.

Is Discord Only for Gamers?

Many people believe that Discord is only for gamers. However, it’s not true. It’s  just that the main target audience of Discord is gamers. Moreover, most app stores list Discord as “Chat for Gamers”. Also, its more popular among gamers because of its integration with gaming platforms like Steam and Twitch.

Nonetheless, Discord is for everyone. It’s an online platform that can be used by any community. Nowadays, Discord has servers or chat rooms on diverse topics ranging from comics, manga, movies, web series, artists, self-help, entrepreneurs, education, and much more. Although it was developed for gamers initially, now many communities use Discord to freely communicate with each other. Hence, Discord has shown tremendous growth in other areas as well over the years.

Which is Better: Skype or Discord?

Discord is in many ways better than Skype. However, some features such as screen sharing, transferring all types of file, and call recording extensions are same in both the application.

Nevertheless, Discord is much better than Skype when it comes to security and bandwidth usage. While Skype constantly transmits audio data, Discords transmits audio data only when a participant is in a call. As a result, Skype has a bandwidth of 100 kbps, whereas, Discord has a bandwidth of 64 kbps. Furthermore, Discord’s private call feature is far more secure than Skype.

How Does Discord Make Money?

You must be a regular gamer on Discord but might still be unaware of how does Discord make money. So, let’s answer this question.

Many applications generate money from advertisements or by selling their users’ information. However, Discord is strictly against such revenue generating strategies. The company believes that ads are disturbing, and that selling users’ data is not healthy for building a trustworthy relationship with the users.

Now, the question that strikes many is how does Discord make money?

Below are the main sources from which Discord makes money:

● Funding: 

Many big companies and organizations support Discord by investing in it through funding. These funds are used by Discord for the growth and development of its platform. Discord has raised as huge as $280 million through funding, and now it’s worth $2.05 billion in valuation.

● Discord Nitro:

Apart from funding, discord nitro, the paid game subscription service, is what helps Discord make money. Discord nitro will cost you  $9.99 per month. Furthermore, you can also take a yearly subscription of $ 99.99 per year.

The users of discord nitro get additional benefits, premium features, and access to a vast library of games. Besides, you get a personal discord tag, custom emojis, greater upload limit, higher-screen resolution, and many other interesting and super-cool features.

● Merchandise:

Above all, Discord makes money from its own merchandise store. You can get branded t-shirts, stylish hoodies, caps, socks, and other such cool stuff from Discord’s merchandise store.

Nevertheless, you should be aware of Discord’s marketing techniques. It is by promoting its store and encouraging customers to buy its customized merchandise that Discord makes extra money.

● Game store:

Launched in 2018, Discord’s game store works on a 90/10 percent revenue split. In other words, Discord allows game developers to publish their games on their store. Consequently, the developers get 90% of the revenue, while Discord keeps the remaining 10% of the total amount.

● Cosmetic Items:

Apart from merchandise, Discord also sells cosmetic items such as sound packs, stickers, skins, emojis, etc. Buying these items will boost your experience of using Discord.

Why Is Discord Free?

Isn’t it hard to believe that Discord is absolutely free? Despite being free, you don’t see ads flooding on its platform. It’s free from any ads or third-party promotion. Yes, that’s how discord works.

However, you might be wondering, “Why discord is free?” Or “How discord is surviving being free?”

You need to understand Discord’s business model to understand why it’s free. However, in short, it can be said that Discord doesn’t believe in generating revenue from its users. Moreover, they want their users to use the platform for free networking and communication.

Although Discord is free for its user, it does have its own medium of earning. Furthermore, users can also go for a paid subscription to Discord. However, it’s completely up to the users.

Now, let’s understand Discord’s business model to see how it can afford to be free.

What Is Discord’s Business Model?

There is no doubt about the popularity of Discord. At present, Discord has over 250 million active members. Isn’t it unbelievable?

Above everything else, Discord’s huge popularity is because of its extremely successful business model. Discord identified the problem many gamers were facing and provided a pocket-friendly solution for it. Now that’s what is called a good business strategy.

Moreover, Discord works on a semi-freemium business model. In other words, it gives its users the flexibility of both unpaid and paid versions. You get all the basic features for free. However, you can buy a paid subscription to access the premium features.

Also, the money that Discord earns comes from funding and other sources. The main purpose behind Discord is to solve the problem most people face while playing games. Discord made it possible to chat while playing or having friends with similar gaming interests. Above all, it saves you from the hassle of unwanted ads and interruptions.

Can You Earn Money from Discord?

There are many ways in which you can earn money from Discord. However, for that you need to have good marketing skills. If your server has good engagement, you can use it for generating money or promoting your products or services. Or you can increase your community first, and then start earning.

● You can create your private server and promote it.

As explained earlier, Discord is all about networking and building communities. If you are able to build a large community on Discord, you can definitely earn from it.

For instance, suppose you are an educator, and you start a server based on education. With time, you can share your lectures on your server. Also, you can keep the subscription of those lectures paid. Furthermore, you can get new students who might be willing to study from you based on your skills.

● Accept donations from people who want to support your community.

You can easily link a PayPal account to accept payments. In return, you can help your community members in some other way.

● Earn money from Discord by getting sponsorships from brands.

Brands are always looking for online platforms with a good audience reach. And if you are able to build a large audience, you can promote brands on your server in exchange for money.

● Make a server exclusively for paid members.

In other words, you can give access of your Discord server only to the paid members.

● Creating bots is another way of earning from Discord.

You can create a bot yourself or hire a developer to create a bot for your server. Investing in bots is a good way of earning from Discord in the long run.

Conclusion

After reading this article, you must have gained some useful insights on how does Discord make money. Many gamers are curious to know the earning mechanism of Discord. And why wouldn’t they be?

With over millions of active players, Discord is one of the most successful online platforms, having a worth of $2.5 billion. Yet, the company offers most of its services for free. But how is it possible? Discord has other such means of making money, from funding to having its own game and merchandise stores. Furthermore, It’s semi-freemium business model gives users the freedom to choose between its free or paid features. This is how Discord has successfully built such a huge business model.

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