Discord is an American company founded in 2015 by Jason Citron. Jason Citron also founded OpenFeint, which is a social platform for mobile games. He started working on Discord after he sold OpenFeint to GREE in 2011 for $104 million. Initially, he founded Hammer & Chisel in 2012, which was a game development studio.
The initial game produced by Hammer & Chisel, called Fates Forever, was commercially unsuccessful.
However, during its development, Jason encountered issues with his team for working out tactics for the game using the available Voice over IP (VoIP) solutions. It was the reason why he and his team started working on a more user-friendly VoIP platform, initially focusing on meeting gamers’ needs.
The team’s effort resulted in a new program, which they called Discord. Due to the software’s focus on gamers and specific audiences, many users started adopting it.
Similarly, because it was similar to Internet Relay Chat (IRC) in the way it worked, many online communities started ditching IRC in favor of Discord. Soon, it took off and became widely used by esports and LAN tournament gamers.
Today, Discord is one of the top VoIP platforms used by millions of active users. The platform allows users to join or create their own servers.
Using their services, they can create channels, both for text messaging and voice chats. Discord also added other features, such as video calling and online streaming to facilitate its users.
While the software initially focused on attracting a gamer audience, today it is used by a diverse audience that comes from different communities.
Discord also overtook or replaced many other online VoIP or video call solutions, including the famous Skype as the top choice between users. It also replaced some dedicated gaming software used for VoIP and text messaging, including IRC and TeamSpeak.
Furthermore, the platform is available on all major operating systems, including Windows, Linux, macOS, iOS, Android, and web browsers.
Discord’s popularity comes from its ease of use and user-friendliness. Most users switching from other platforms find Discord familiar. There is a small or even none learning curve involved in learning how to use it. As of now, there are many communities, including book clubs, digital conventions, educational and technological users, etc. using Discord.
The company profile for Discord Inc., the company behind Discord, is as below.
Company Profile 2022
| Name | Discord, Inc. |
| Website | discord.com |
| Founder | Jason Citron |
| Chief Executive Officer (CEO) | Jason Citron |
| Chief Technology Officer (CTO) | Stanislav Vishnevskiy |
| Headquarters | San Francisco, CA, USA. |
| Type of corporation | Private |
| Year founded | 2012 |
| Revenues (estimated) | ~ $70 million |
| Company valuation (estimated) | ~ $3.5 billion |
| Key products/services | Instant messaging, Voice over Internet Protocol, Video Calling, Live Streaming, Discord Nitro. |
| Key competitors | Curse, Twitch, bigo, Carbonated, TeamSpeak, Mumbo, Slack, Flock, Ventrilo. |
| Investors | Index Ventures, Accel Partners, Benchmark, Greylock Partners, Spark Capital, Greenoaks Capital Management, Tencent Holdings, Danny Rimer, Time Warner, YouWeb, 9+ Program, IVP (Institutional Venture Partners), Specialized Types, General Catalyst Partners, FirstMark, Ridge Ventures (Formerly known as IDG Ventures USA), Technology Opportunity Partners |
| Subsidiaries | Blitz Esports |
SWOT Analysis 2022:
SWOT analysis is an analytic technique used to identify the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats of a company or business. The SWOT analysis of Discord, Inc., as of 2020, is as below.
1) Discord, Inc. Strengths
The strengths of a company, within the SWOT analysis, demonstrate the things that it is doing right. These are points that give the company a competitive edge over the others in the market. Given below are some of the strengths of Discord, Inc.
Easy to use
The first strength of the software is that it is easy to use. Users from different fields use the platform daily to host their servers. The user interface is organized in a way to help users to find what they are looking for easily.
Discord also gives users a brief tutorial on how to use it to help them when they are starting on the platform. Similarly, it is available on all major networks and associated with different other gaming platforms that attract a lot of users.
Free
Discord is not only easy to use but also free. Users signing up for the platform don’t have to pay to use it. It makes it a frontrunner in the market compared to some paid alternatives.
There are some features on the platform that users can pay to use, which mainly include Discord Nitro. However, these features are optional, and users can use Discord without needing those features at all.
Integrability
Users of Discord can integrate their Discord accounts with some other major platforms. These include Twitch, Steam, and Xbox Live, which most gamers around the globe use.
On top of that, users can also link their discords with some other platforms, such as Samsung’s Game Launcher. These are features mostly targeted at its gamer users.
Unlimited use
Apart from being free, Discord does not limit most of its useful features that users can utilize. These include features, such as voice chatting, video calls, desktop streaming, etc.
It is particularly beneficial for communities looking to host their servers on the platform without bearing any costs. Recently, due to its unlimited use, Discord has attracted users from diverse groups. One of these groups includes students and teachers looking for online educational solutions.
Customizability
Discord allows its users the ability to customize their experience using different features. These include simple stuff, including options related to changing its appearance, to more advanced settings, which consists of modifying server features.
Discord also allows users to use their Application Programming Interface (API) to add bots and interact with servers through code.
2) Discord, Inc. Weaknesses
Weaknesses, in SWOT analysis, exemplify the shortcomings of a company or business. Sometimes, they also include things that competitors are doing right, but the company isn’t.
For Discord, Inc., the weaknesses include the following:
Privacy
One of the major complaints that users have about the platform is its lack of privacy features. While the platform does offer some standard privacy features, it does not have advanced features like end-to-end encryption, which impacts its userbase negatively.
Discord also monitors every application that users use, as a part of its features, which they can’t disable.
Some users consider the lack of privacy and encryption on the platform as a dealbreaker. The founder and CEO of Discord also had some privacy problems with his previous venture OpenFeint, which some users find worrying.
Call quality
Some users of the platform also complain of its below-par call quality. While the call quality on Discord is standard, it still lags behind other alternatives.
Discord also drops calls randomly, which users don’t like. The platform has improved its VoIP quality a lot in the past and continues to do so. However, some problems persist that users find annoying.
Some of the users are also complaining about its fuction which is not properly compatable with keyboards.
Gamers focused
As mentioned above, users from many distinct and diverse communities use Discord, the platform itself focuses more on gamers.
Most of the features it includes are to compensate gamers. Even the appearance of Discord’s clients on different devices appeals to gamers. Some users are discouraged by that and try other alternatives and competitors’ solutions.
3) Discord, Inc. Opportunities
Opportunities in SWOT analysis represent external factors that a company can exploit to take advantage of in the future. Companies can use them to gain a competitive edge in the future. Some opportunities that Discord, Inc. can utilize consist of the following.
Technological advancements
As with any other platform that works through the internet, Discord can also benefit from technological advancements in the future.
While most of its users are satisfied with the current features that the platform provides, there are still features that the company can bring in to gain more users. Since the users of the platform are mostly advanced users, they would require the company to adopt these changes at the earliest possible.
New markets
As mentioned above, Discord mainly focuses on gamers. However, the platform has the opportunity to expand into new markets and gain more users. The platform already has the features that most of its competitors also have.
Therefore, attracting new users from different markets segments should not be a problem for them. There are various preexisting markets and new ones in which the company can give tough competition to existing platforms.
Increase in customer awareness
The customers of the industry that Discord operates in and the market that it targets include customers who are aware of what they want.
Therefore, by interacting with these customers and identifying their needs, Discord can easily make changes and satisfy them. It presents a superb opportunity for the platform to gain new users and expand its features.
4) Discord, Inc. Threats
Threats in SWOT analysis represent external factors that can negatively impact a company in the future. Sometimes, these may not be in the control of the company. The threats that Discord faces currently include the following.
Low barriers to entry
Due to the nature of companies that provide services on the internet, they must face a lot of competition. The same is true for Discord.
Discord, itself, has replaced many existing options, such as Skype or TeamSpeak in the past. Therefore, there is a threat that new companies in the market can easily topple Discord to reach the top spot.
Privacy policy changes
There has been a shift in worldwide demand for privacy in recent years. Due to this, almost all companies in the technology industry have been the recipient of negative publicity.
These companies include some top names in the industry, including Facebook, Google, and Apple. Due to these policies, Discord also faces a threat that can affect the platform negatively.
Possibility of scams
Discord is a platform that facilitates the communication of users through the internet. Where there is an interaction between internet users, there is always a possibility for a scam.
While there are no transactions involved between users on the platform, they can still suffer from viruses and malware spread through the platform.
Conclusion
Discord is an online platform that provides users with different features. These features include text messaging, voice calling, video calling, video streaming, and much more.
Initially, the platform focuses on allowing gamers to communicate with each other when they play games. However, nowadays, a diverse group of communities uses it. Given above is a detailed SWOT analysis of the company.